UK-based Albus Health (formerly BreathOx) has shared data revealing that its Albus Home AI-powered monitoring device can detect warning signs of impending asthma attacks in children up to five days before they occur.
The company shared its study findings at the recent British Thoracic Society Winter Meeting 2024.
Conducted at Birmingham Children’s Hospital and Royal Brompton Hospital, the study demonstrated that the device could identify significant changes in children’s respiratory health days before they required emergency steroid treatment for asthma attacks.
Albus said the early warning window could provide crucial time for medical intervention and potentially prevent emergency hospitalisations.
Dr Prasad Nagakumar, director for research at Birmingham Children's Hospital and lead researcher on the study, said: "For the first time, we have technology that can reliably monitor children while they sleep, without any disruption to their normal routine.
"The device's ability to detect changes up to five days before an attack represents a potential paradigm shift in asthma management, offering a window of opportunity for early intervention that simply hasn't existed before."
Albus Health spun out from the University of Oxford in 2017. In April 2024, the company joined AstraZeneca’s BioVentureHub. The initiative is designed to offer emerging life science companies and academic teams an “innovative way to access AstraZeneca’s experience, expertise, and infrastructure”.
According to GlobalData analysis, the global patient monitoring market was valued at around $18bn in 2023 and is forecast to reach a valuation of almost $24bn by 2033.
Elsewhere in asthma, myBiometry recently secured a $5m investment to advance the development of its fenoTRACK device for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
Italian biopharmaceutical group Chiesi Farmaceutici and Health Innovation Manchester recently launched an initiative to implement UK company LungHealth’s software in GP clinics across the city to drive computer-guided consultations for asthma and COPD annual reviews.
