Sniffing out respiratory disease through breath analysis

Amsterdam IoT specialist Evalan has contributed to the development of Spironose, a device used to diagnose pulmonary diseases such as asthma, COPD and lung cancer. This product from Reeuwijk-based Breathomix analyzes exhaled air for volatile organic components. Evalan developed the sensor system and the subsystem that collects and transmits the measurement data.

Breath analyses with Spironose can lead to faster diagnoses. The sensor records the complete mix of volatile organic compounds in the exhaled air. The measurement data is sent to the Breathbase cloud platform, where it’s analyzed and corrected for the ambient air. This creates an individual breathing profile for the patient, which can be compared with an existing database of patients with a known diagnosis. Using artificial intelligence, the most likely diagnosis is given.

Rianne de Vries, a PhD student at the Amsterdam University Medical Center, carried out a large-scale study together with a team of other researchers in which the Spironose was tested in several Dutch hospitals and GP practices. A prototype of the system was used to show whether the concept could be used by doctors. After its success, Breathomix was founded to bring the concept to healthcare practice.