A Cyber-Physical System for Unified Diagnosis and Treatment of Lung Disease

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This project addresses two main challenges in diagnosis and treatment of infectious lung diseases: (i) Challenges in diagnostic regional sampling of the lung in mechanically ventilated (MV) critically ill patients. Currently, sampling of lung in MV patients is not standardised. Indeed, this was exemplified before the COVID-19 pandemic by the high rate of antibiotic administration in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for suspected lung infections. Empirical antibiotics/therapies are often started without sampling due to the perceived risk, required expertise and time for bronchoscopic sampling. (ii) In addition to lack of repeatability and accuracy in sampling, there is a need for precise and repeatable drug delivery to guide experimental drug development. Currently, animal models of disease, which do not accurately reflect human infectious diseases, are often used for the development and iteration/optimisation of experimental drugs. It is essential to develop innovative technologies to understand and evaluate disease and drug effectiveness in humans. To this end, I will bring together roboticists, AI specialists, clinicians, and translational governance experts to develop an AI-based navigation platform that can generate a map of the lung on the fly for repeatable and accurate sampling/drug delivery. The map can be used to guide novice practitioners to perform repeatable, accurate, and timely bedside lung sampling in critically ill patients in ICUs. Thus, obviating the need for access to expert operators and democratising ICU lung sampling. Moreover, the navigation algorithm coupled with our previously developed robot for lung sampling and semi-autonomous control algorithms enables accurate drug delivery and analysis of drug-target responses to facilitate the development of effective therapies for infection-driven pathology. The project will lead to a radical innovation in respiratory critical care to democratise lung sampling/interrogation and drug delivery and enable future research for the discovery, optimisation, and development of novel therapies in severe infectious diseases.