Miniaturized plasma emission spectroscopy-based breath analysis for unobtrusive at-home monitoring and prediction of COPD exacerbations

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Patients suffering from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary disease (COPD) suffer from persistent airway obstruction causing shortness of breath and extreme fatigue. Patients are repeatedly hospitalized due to acute flare-ups known as exacerbations, which are largely responsible for the morbidity and mortality associated with COPD. Exacerbations are diagnosed based on symptoms only and diagnosis is often too late. There is an urgent need for a reliable technology for unobtrusive and continuous at-home monitoring of COPD patients to enable timely exacerbation prediction and treatment. The Breath-Sense consortium aims to develop the first-ever hand-held breathalyzer for non-invasive detection of breath biomarkers. RespiQ has developed a breakthrough plasma emission spectroscopy-based breath analysis technology, and will collaborate with sensor development expert SINTEF, user-experience and co-creation expert NeLL and clinical COPD specialist KCL. The consortium will combine innovative technological advancements with human-centric user-experience research to develop and validate a transformative clinical workflow for at-home monitoring of COPD patients. With this digital biomarker-based monitoring solution, patients and clinicians will benefit from reliable and timely prediction of exacerbations, leading to early treatment intervention and preventing up to 95% hospitalizations. The Breath-Sense workflow will deliver a paradigm shift in COPD management, from symptom-based delayed diagnosis towards preventative at-home monitoring prior to symptom worsening. Ultimately, the breathalyzer technology is a platform technology that can be applicable for a wide range of respiratory and gastrointestinal diseases that could also be monitored better continuously at home such as asthma, lung cancer, and IBS, since novel biomarkers can be incorporated for different disease indications. As such, the Breath-Sense technology has the potential to improve the health of millions of people.