I-Corps: An Innovative Technology for Environmental Exposure and Respiratory Response Assessment

这个I-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发紧凑，可穿戴和用户友好的肺部健康监测设备，可以让患者远离急诊室和医院病床，并在舒适的家中。第一批商业应用将集中在慢性阻塞性肺疾病（COPD），哮喘和症状控制不佳且需要医疗护理的严重突破性发作的患者。这些患者最有可能被激励使用可穿戴设备进行监测。这个市场可能会扩大到患有其他呼吸道疾病的患者，并可能扩大到COVID-19和长期COVID。该设备有可能使患者能够更好地监测他们的呼吸健康并改变行为，从而立即带来健康益处。职业安全市场也有潜力监测工作场所的环境空气质量，I-Corps的这个项目是基于开发一种可穿戴的环境暴露和肺部健康监测设备。第一个原型已经设计和开发，目前正在伯明翰肺健康中心的亚拉巴马大学进行住院试验。这些原型设备正在收集数据，并将COPD和哮喘患者与他们的医疗保健提供者联系起来，这将减少急诊室就诊和住院时间。该技术是一种正在开发的可穿戴设备技术，用于连续监测患者的周围环境（二氧化氮（NO2）、臭氧（O3）、二氧化硫（SO2）和特定物质（PM）沿着空气温度和相对湿度）、身体活动、体温、血氧水平、呼吸功能、运动速度和医院系统外的地理位置。使用峰值流量计评估呼吸功能数据。内置的运动跟踪器允许实时时空分辨率数据来评估身体活动的水平。收集个人的全球定位系统（GPS）坐标，就能够在精确的采样间隔内进行与活动参数相关的位置监测。这些数据将显示在一个用户友好的应用程序中，以帮助个人教育他们呼吸健康和识别潜在的触发因素，并帮助他们的医疗保健提供者进行评估和干预。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of compact, wearable, and user-friendly lung health monitoring device that can keep patients out of emergency rooms and hospital beds and in the comfort of their homes. The first commercial applications will focus on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, and respiratory-compromised patients whose symptoms are not well controlled and have severe breakthrough attacks requiring medical attention. These patients are most likely to be motivated to use wearable device for monitoring. This market may be expanded to patients with other respiratory diseases and potentially to COVID-19 and long-COVID. The device has the potential to empower patients to better monitor their respiratory health and change behaviors resulting in immediate health benefits. There is also the potential for an occupational safety market to monitor ambient air quality in the workplace.This I-Corps project is based on the development of a wearable environmental exposure and lung health monitoring device. The first prototypes have been designed and developed and are currently in an inpatient trial at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Lung Health Center. These prototype devices are collecting data and connecting COPD and asthma patients to their health care providers which will allow for a reduction of emergency room visits and hospital time. This technology is a wearable device technology being developed to provide continuous monitoring of a patient’s ambient environment (nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ozone (O3), sulphur dioxide (SO2), and particular matter (PM) along with air temperature and relative humidity), physical activity, body temperature, blood oxygen level, respiratory function, the pace of movement, and geographic location outside of the hospital system. The respiratory function data is assessed using a peak flow meter. A built-in movement tracker allows real-time spatial-temporal resolution data to assess the level of physical activity. The collection of an individual’s global positioning system (GPS) coordinates enables location monitoring in association with activity parameters for precise sampling intervals. The data will be be displayed in a user-friendly app to the individual, to help educate them on respiratory health and identify potential triggers and to their health care provider for assessment and intervention.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.