Mobile multifunctional tool for monitoring and management of respiratory diseases

描述（由申请人提供）：用于监测和管理呼吸系统疾病的移动多功能工具，慢性阻塞性肺疾病（COPD）和哮喘影响全球数百万人。由于这些疾病没有永久性的治疗方法，因此需要对患者的整个生命周期进行有效的管理，随着卫生费用的迅速上升，这变得越来越困难。新的移动医疗技术，例如允许患者在自由生活或接近自由生活的条件下监测其疾病的个人设备，将降低成本，从而有助于解决这一问题。此外，移动设备提供的对病人健康状况的持续监测将比目前在医院或临床环境中进行的零星医疗检查提供更完整的信息。对于慢性阻塞性肺病和哮喘最有效的诊断和管理技术是肺活量测定和血管造影。然而，传统的低成本肺活量计相对不准确且缺乏气体交换信息，并且肺活量计设备体积庞大，价格昂贵，并且在没有专业人员密切监督的情况下难以操作。这些因素限制了肺活量测定和血管造影仅在医院或诊所使用。目前的项目旨在开发一种个人设备，可以为医院和诊所以外的病人进行血液造影和肺活量测定。制造这样的设备在技术上具有挑战性，但目前的项目将建立在pi的几项创新之上，

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Mobile multifunctional tool for monitoring and management of respiratory diseases Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and asthma affect millions of people worldwide. Because there is no permanent cure for these diseases, efficient management of the patients over their entire lifetime are needed, which becomes increasingly difficult with the rapid rise in the cost of health. New mobile health technologies, such as personal devices that allow patients to monitor their diseases under or near free-living conditions, will lower the cost, and thus contribute to the solution of the proble. Furthermore, continuous monitoring of the patients' health status afforded by the mobile devices will provide more complete information than the sporadic medical exams carried out currently in hospital or clinical settings. The most effective diagnosis and management technologies for COPD and asthma are spirometry and capnography. However, traditional low-cost spirometers are relatively inaccurate and lack of gas exchange information, and the capnography equipment is bulky, expensive, and difficult-to-operate without close supervision of professionals. These factors have limited spirometry and capnography to the use in hospital or clinic setting only. The present project aims at developing a personal device that can perform both capnography and spirometry for patients to use outside of hospitals and clinics. Creating such a device has been technically challenging, but the present project will be built upon several innovations by the PIs, including 1) a nanocomposite sensing material for accurate breath-by-breath analysis of carbon dioxide concentrations, 2) a low cost and high performance acoustic flow sensor that covers a wide dynamic range for both low flow-rate capnography and high flow-rate spirometry, 3) an adaptive sampling algorithm for correctly collecting the patient's breath without the presence of professionals, and 4) a user-friendly cell phone application for signal processing, data display and storage, and communications. This project combines the strengths of the sensor development and device fabrication capabilities of TF Health Co (doing business as Breezing Co.), bioanalytical team at ASU, and the medical expertise in research and clinical practice of VA Medical Center to develop and validate a multifunctional tool for personal monitoring of lung functions. The teams have worked together and carried out substantial experiments, which have prepared them to overcome technical challenges and reach the final goal.