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

Project description

Breath analysis for at-home pulmonary disease monitoring

Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) suffer from airway obstruction, causing shortness of breath and fatigue. Exacerbations lead to hospitalisation and are responsible for morbidity and mortality. Diagnosis is often made too late. Reliable technology is needed for continuous and unobtrusive monitoring at home to predict and treat exacerbations. With this in mind, the EIC-funded BREATH-SENSE project aims to create a hand-held breathalyser for non-invasive detection of breath biomarkers. The aim is to develop a transformative clinical workflow for at-home monitoring of COPD patients. As such, digital biomarker-based monitoring predicts exacerbations for early intervention, preventing up to 95 % of hospitalisations and improving COPD management. The breathalyser technology can also be applied for monitoring respiratory and gastrointestinal diseases.

Objective

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.

Coordinator

ACADEMISCH ZIEKENHUIS LEIDEN
Net EU contribution
€ 589 660,99
Address
ALBINUSDREEF 2
2333 ZA Leiden
Netherlands

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Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
€ 589 660,99

Participants (3)

Partners (1)