Measuring the breath

Current Methods

Current methods for measuring and recording asthma medication compliance are almost archaic. These methods include:

  • -Patient Self-Report
  • -Pharmacy Records
  • -Actuation Counts
Patient self-report is an immediate problem because children can be irresponsible and unable to manage something so important. Pharmacy records can only show overall how much medication is being used, but cannot provide information during time windows between refills. Finally, counting inhaler actuations can be the most accurate, yet if the patient is not taking their medication properly, then they will be more frequent in their actuations. Therefore, there is a huge demand for a device that can physically measure the amount of medication in an asthmatic's lungs.

SolidWorks design of the proposed prototype.

Taguchi Gas Sensing Technology

Our patent pending design measures biologically inactive chemicals that are found within asthma medication, specifically the propellant. These chemicals remain in the lungs for very long periods of time, up to 10 days. After the initial administration, the propellant in asthma medication slowly defuses out of the lungs. We can measure this difference and correlate it to how long it has been since the patient has taken their medication.

The Expira Asthmonitor combines propellant detection with other widely used methods including: spirometry and % CO2. Having all these tools in one place will help both clinicians and parents monitor their children and provide a greater picture of how they are doing.

The gas test chamber setup. This is used to collect HFA sensing data from the Taguchi sensor in an air tight chamber.