Title: Improved data collection from asthma patients using telehealth services

Team: Paulina Salgado Marshall, Kelly Amanna, Christopher Lung, Jessica Malow

Client: Telehealth – George Su, MD (UCSF)

Spirometry is a physiological test that assesses lung function by measuring the amount and/or speed of air that can be inhaled and exhaled. Spirometry aids in the diagnosis and classification of obstructive lung diseases and assists in quantifying response to treatment over a period of time. Asthma is a long-term disease of the lungs that causes a patient’s airways to become inflamed and narrow, making it difficult to breathe. The disease affects 1 in 13 Americans and has a high prevalence of being under-treated and under-recognized in patients ages 60+ in the United States. While spirometry has the potential to improve diagnosis and treatment, there is a challenge in obtaining accurate and repeatable spirometry measurements due to the lack of supervision and coaching during the data collection, specifically in telemedicine.

Our unmet needs centers around designing a guided spirometer device to increase the reliability of data collected from of ederly asthma patients using telehealth services.