New funding for wearable devices to detect lung disease flare-ups

Bristol BRC researchers have received funding to develop sensors and wearable devices for people living with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), to alert them when they are about to have a flare-up.

They will use artificial intelligence (AI) to work out when a person’s condition is likely to worsen, based on information from a wearable activity tracker and the patient’s own report of their symptoms.

The researchers have received £44,000 for this work from the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) AI for Collective Intelligence Hub.

In the UK, 1.7 million people have COPD, a lung disease which makes it hard to breathe and causes coughing.

Sometimes they have ‘flare-ups’, when their symptoms suddenly get much worse. These flare-ups make breathing even harder and send over 100,000 people to hospital every year.

The researchers plan to use AI to predict these flare-ups before they happen. They will work with patients to design a digital tool that provides personalised, timely warnings that their condition is worsening. This will empower them to take steps to stop their symptoms becoming so severe, for example adjusting their medication or modifying their daily activities.

The long-term aim of this work is for people with COPD to have fewer, less severe flare-ups, and to need to go to hospital less often.

James Dodd, Professor of Respiratory Medicine at Bristol BRC, said:

“We’re delighted to receive this funding, which will help us to tackle one of the main problems facing our patients living with COPD: how to spot signs of an exacerbation or flare-up, and when to start treatment.

“It will build on over four years of working in digital therapeutics and AI, and addresses the UK government’s 10 Year Health Plan to deliver the three big shifts our NHS needs to be fit for the future: from hospital to community, from analogue to digital, and from sickness to prevention.”