Fighting Antibiotic resistance with point of care breath analysis

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Due to the over prescription of antibiotics in cases where they do not help people get better, some bacteria have become resistant to them. To slow down this resistance, doctors need to prescribe less antibiotics in cases where they will not help. One way to do this is by developing a test to detect if a patient has a bacterial infection or not. This test should be quick, cheap and simple to undertake both at a GP surgery and in hospital and with no inconvenience a patient and preferably non-invasive.There is a need for a point-of-care (POC) diagnostics device to assist clinical decision making in the administration of antibiotics. Simply being able to identify if a patient is suffering from a bacterial, viral or fungal infection could produce a significant reduction in drug administration -- the key is to provide the clinician or GP the confidence NOT to prescribe a drugIMSPEX Diagnostics Ltd will further develop their Breathspec(r) device, which has already been successfully trialled on patients with respiratory tract infections. The developments are needed to make the Breathspec(r) device compliant with legislation for medical devices. As this is a complicated process, IMSPEX will have help from leading research scientists from Warwick University, specialist design engineers and the NHS. Creating a cost-effective, quick and easy-to-use test for deciding if patient have a bacterial or viral chest infection.IMSPEX Diagnostics Ltd will bring to market a diagnostic tool that can assist in antibiotic stewardship and rule out inappropriate antibiotic use. This will give both patients and doctors confidence in the decision to prescribe antibiotics or not. This concept is so innovative that there is currently no other company actively developing an AMR test that uses breath analysis. This means that there is an opportunity for IMSPEX Diagnostics to be first to market with such as test.