POC-Breath test for home management of respiratory disease

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Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and asthma are leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide and have a significant economic and social burden. Significant challenges include delays in an accurate diagnosis, maintaining good disease control and the identification of exacerbations, which consume a disproportionate share of expenditure due to the high cost of treatment and hospital admissions. As a result, there is an unmet need for non-invasive, simple tests that can diagnose and monitor these conditions accurately. Breath analysis is one such non-invasive test whereby small quantities of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) can be detected in human breath; they form a personalized signature fingerprint of components that can be used for early diagnosis and disease monitoring. We plan to develop a standardized handheld breath test system (early prototype tested in the laboratory) to be used by clinicians and patients that could allow detection of exacerbations earlier and optimising accurate treatment depending on the pathological driver of the exacerbation. This would form part of a self-care program and home monitoring solution to guide personalized treatment plans in less than one minute. Our innovative new breath test system would be handheld, easy to use and internet enabled and significantly cheaper. It would use our unique sensor chip that can monitor many gases simultaneously with high accuracy and high sensitivity.