Uscom Limited SpiroSonic Devices For Spanish Health Project

Uscom subsidiary Uscom Europe announced a partnership with Sonmedica S.A., the Public Health Agency of Catalonia and the Health Campus of the University of Barcelona to deliver telemetric pulmonary care via the Nextcare Digital Health Care Project to patients in Catalonia. The project, the first of its kind worldwide, aims to deliver personalised home care to patients with chronic disease via a public digital health care framework.

The pulmonary arm of the Nextcare project is being led by Professor Josep Roca, MD, PhD, the Director of The Lung Function Unit at the Barcelona Hospital Clinic, Professor of Medicine at The University of Barcelona, and the former president of the European Respiratory Society credited with over 470 peer reviewed publications.

The pulmonary arm of the Nextcare project uses the new Uscom SpiroSonic tSpiro telemetric ultrasonic spirometers for the home care monitoring of patients with chronic pulmonary disease. The Uscom SpiroSonic devices utilise multi-path ultrasonic technology and are wirelessly connected to the central hospital record keeping systems with Uscom SpiroReporter proprietary digital phone and cloud based software applications. Specialist pulmonologists then evaluate the measurements and direct management via mobile phone, thus by-passing expensive hospital treatment.

Key Points

• The Nextcare digital health care project is designed to provide digital home care monitoring for patients with chronic diseases, including asthma and COPD
• Pulmonary diseases such as asthma and COPD are increasing worldwide as air quality deteriorates
• Uscom tSpiro multi-path ultrasonic spirometers provide practice leading pulmonary function measurements
• Uscom proprietary software and digital connectivity with SpiroSonic devices provides for high acuity home care monitoring of pulmonary function
• As part of the Nextcare program approximately 50 Uscom tSpiro devices have been deployed and connected to regional hospital medical recording systems as part of the pilot study, while the system is expected to be rolled out state wide over the next few years as its clinical value is established.
• The pulmonary arm of the Nextcare project is the first worldwide to implement telemetric pulmonary care into the eHealth home care model
• The Uscom tSpiro platform of devices are currently being adopted by a number of eHealth providers around the world and are approved for European sales, and are currently being reviewed for US FDA and Chinese CFDA approval.
• The Nextcare Digital Health Care Project is supported by European Union funding

Uscom’s Global Head of Product Innovation and Digital Pulmonary Devices, George Ferenczi said: “Our engineering team have spent a lot of time working with Sonmedica and the scientists in the Nextcare program at the University of Barcelona matching the digital interfaces of our SpiroSonic devices with the Catalonian Hospital medical records systems and ensuring ease of digital communication and simplification of signal analysis.”

Executive Chairman of Uscom, Associate Professor Rob Phillips said: “Our digital health work with the Barcelona University and Public Health Agency of Catalonia is the first of its kind worldwide, and will become the template for digital health care worldwide; this project is setting the standards for eHealth excellence for the future. It’s a great credit to our Uscom engineers that this innovative model has been so seamlessly implemented for the benefit of the people of this highly developed region of Spain, and we look forward to the adoption of our digital technologies in similar models worldwide.”

Digital cloud based pulmonary monitoring is an emerging global trend in clinical care, and provides for early detection of changes in pulmonary function and improved guidance of therapy. This collaboration between the Public Health Agency of Catalonia, the Health Campus of the University of Barcelona, and Sonmedica with Uscom Europe is supported by European Union funding, and is further recognition of the superior quality of the SpiroSonic digital spirometers and our connectivity solutions. While many current spirometers use mechanical turbines, Uscom’s patented multi-path ultrasonic spirometers provide higher accuracy, lower maintenance, are simpler to use, and are more hygienic.

Uscom manufactures and markets the USCOM 1A, the Uscom BP+, and the Uscom SpiroSonic digital ultrasonic spirometry technologies. These premium digital devices are changing the way we diagnose and treat cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases, including hypertension, heart failure, asthma, COPD and sleep disorders. The products are integral for optimising management of sepsis and guidance of fluid, inotropes and vasoactive therapies in critical care monitoring, and in clinical and home care delivered asthma and COPD medications.