POC-Breath test for home management of respiratory disease

慢性阻塞性肺疾病（COPD）和哮喘是世界范围内发病率和死亡率的主要原因，并且具有显著的经济和社会负担。重大挑战包括延误准确诊断、保持良好的疾病控制和查明病情加重，由于治疗和住院费用高昂，这些方面的支出占支出的比例过高。因此，对于能够准确诊断和监测这些病症的非侵入性、简单的测试存在未满足的需求。呼吸分析就是这样一种非侵入性测试，可以在人体呼吸中检测到少量的挥发性有机化合物（VOC）;它们形成了可用于早期诊断和疾病监测的成分的个性化特征指纹。我们计划开发一种标准化的手持式呼吸测试系统（在实验室中测试的早期原型），供临床医生和患者使用，可以更早地检测急性加重，并根据急性加重的病理驱动因素优化准确的治疗。这将成为自我护理计划和家庭监测解决方案的一部分，在不到一分钟的时间内指导个性化治疗计划。我们创新的新呼吸测试系统将是手持式的，易于使用和互联网启用和显着便宜。它将使用我们独特的传感器芯片，可以同时监测多种气体，具有高精度和高灵敏度。

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.