Innovate UK awards grant for development of AI supported warning system for patients with respiratory disease

Innovate UK, the country’s innovation agency, has awarded a grant to Aseptika and Zenzium for the development of a new home-based early warning system, using artificial intelligence (AI), for people with severe respiratory disease.

A challenge for many patients that suffer from long-term health conditions during the winter months is discerning whether they are suffering from simply a ‘bad day’ due to the weather conditions or if they are experiencing the start of life-threatening exacerbation of their condition. This winter, the NHS experienced substantial levels of demand, which outstripped supply despite extensive planning. This has prompted calls to find solutions for the challenges in providing health and social care for an ageing population.

Patients are already given ‘rescue packs’ containing steroids and/or antibiotics for use at home in emergency situations, however, there can be issues surrounding when action should be taken by the patient. Earlier action means that exacerbation can potentially be controlled but oftentimes patients leave it too late and their health deteriorates quickly. Many patients admitted as an emergency this winter, were suffering from respiratory conditions set-off by the winter flu.

Aseptika and Zenzium will collaborate to create a system to automatically warn when the patients’ health is declining. Through reviewing anonymised information gathered from previous clinical trials the companies realised that many patients do not treat exacerbations and may not even be aware that they are having them. In some instances, patients were even delaying treatment hoping that the symptoms would resolve by themselves. However, inflammation of lung tissue during an exacerbation can lead to irreversible damage. Over time and after repeated cycles, it is possible for patients to develop shortness of breath and even more opportunities for infections to take hold.

Through the funding from Innovate UK, the two companies will develop a series of mathematical algorithms, which could be used to pre-warn patients of the start of an exacerbation process and to give a risk score for predicted severity to urge earlier action. These patterns are different for each patient but are often repeated. These will be automatically analysed to give a personal detection score that will be continually updated as it learns about each patient and contributes this knowledge to evolve its understanding of these conditions.

This Smart LungHealth system will be introduced by the companies in the form of the cloud-connecting Activ8rlives App and will also embed the AI alerting system into Aseptika’s future wearable medical monitor called the BuddyWOTCH, currently in development.