I-Corps: An Innovative Technology for Environmental Exposure and Respiratory Response Assessment

I-Corps项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是开发紧凑型、可穿戴式和用户友好的肺部健康监测设备，使患者远离急诊室和医院病床，而舒适地待在家中。第一批商业应用将集中在慢性阻塞性肺疾病（COPD）、哮喘和呼吸系统受损患者身上，这些患者的症状控制不好，有严重的突破性发作需要医疗照顾。这些患者最有可能使用可穿戴设备进行监测。该市场可能会扩展到其他呼吸道疾病患者，并可能扩展到COVID-19和长covid。该设备有可能使患者更好地监测他们的呼吸健康，改变行为，从而立即获得健康益处。职业安全市场也有潜力监测工作场所的环境空气质量。这个I-Corps项目是基于可穿戴环境暴露和肺部健康监测设备的开发。第一批原型已经设计和开发出来，目前正在阿拉巴马大学伯明翰肺部健康中心进行住院试验。这些原型设备正在收集数据，并将COPD和哮喘患者与他们的医疗保健提供者联系起来，这将减少急诊室就诊和住院时间。该技术是一种正在开发的可穿戴设备技术，用于持续监测患者的环境（二氧化氮（NO2）、臭氧（O3）、二氧化硫（SO2）和特定物质（PM）以及空气温度和相对湿度）、身体活动、体温、血氧水平、呼吸功能、运动速度和医院系统外的地理位置。呼吸功能数据使用峰值流量计进行评估。内置的运动跟踪器允许实时的时空分辨率数据来评估身体活动的水平。个人全球定位系统（GPS）坐标的收集使位置监测与精确采样间隔的活动参数相关联。这些数据将显示在一个用户友好的应用程序中，以帮助他们了解呼吸健康，识别潜在的触发因素，并提供给他们的医疗保健提供者进行评估和干预。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of compact, wearable, and user-friendly lung health monitoring device that can keep patients out of emergency rooms and hospital beds and in the comfort of their homes. The first commercial applications will focus on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, and respiratory-compromised patients whose symptoms are not well controlled and have severe breakthrough attacks requiring medical attention. These patients are most likely to be motivated to use wearable device for monitoring. This market may be expanded to patients with other respiratory diseases and potentially to COVID-19 and long-COVID. The device has the potential to empower patients to better monitor their respiratory health and change behaviors resulting in immediate health benefits. There is also the potential for an occupational safety market to monitor ambient air quality in the workplace.This I-Corps project is based on the development of a wearable environmental exposure and lung health monitoring device. The first prototypes have been designed and developed and are currently in an inpatient trial at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Lung Health Center. These prototype devices are collecting data and connecting COPD and asthma patients to their health care providers which will allow for a reduction of emergency room visits and hospital time. This technology is a wearable device technology being developed to provide continuous monitoring of a patient’s ambient environment (nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ozone (O3), sulphur dioxide (SO2), and particular matter (PM) along with air temperature and relative humidity), physical activity, body temperature, blood oxygen level, respiratory function, the pace of movement, and geographic location outside of the hospital system. The respiratory function data is assessed using a peak flow meter. A built-in movement tracker allows real-time spatial-temporal resolution data to assess the level of physical activity. The collection of an individual’s global positioning system (GPS) coordinates enables location monitoring in association with activity parameters for precise sampling intervals. The data will be be displayed in a user-friendly app to the individual, to help educate them on respiratory health and identify potential triggers and to their health care provider for assessment and intervention.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.