Evaluation of the Ezibreath in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

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Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the fourth leading cause of death worldwide and is projected to be the third leading cause of death by 2020. COPD accounts for the highest rate of hospital admissions among major chronic illnesses in Canada. Recent studies have provided strong evidence for an association between COPD and sleep disturbance. In fact, sleep-related complaints rank third in frequency, behind shortness of breath and fatigue in patients with COPD. Actigraphy is a non-invasive technique for monitoring sleep patterns in the comfort of a patient's own home and is an attractive alternative to complex and expensive laboratory based tests such as polysomnography (PSG). Agartee has developed an innovative actigraph specifically designed for patients with COPD. The device, known as the "Ezibreath", can measure many important variables that can be sent remotely to care providers to assist in the monitoring and management of patients with COPD. For example, the Ezibreath measures physical activity levels, heart rate, inhaler use, and sleep, among other variables. At this stage in the company's development, Agartee must optimize the accuracy of their algorithms before they can conduct validation studies. Agartee's first priority is to optimize their sleep algorithms. Accordingly, they will work with Dr. Jordan Guenette, an Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia to test the Ezibreath during formal laboratory sleep testing. The study will simultaneously compare the Ezibreath to PSG in 12 clinically stable patients with moderate-to-severe COPD. They will then use the information from the gold standard PSG to refine their algorithms to optimize the accuracy of the Ezibreath.