BREATHER

Breather is using technology to connect patients with asthma around the world with expert respiratory care. 

There are over 300 million people with asthma in the world. This chronic disease affects 14% of the world's children and it is a main reason for missing days of school and work. In the US alone we spend $60 billion in caring for asthma patients every year. People living in rural communities and inner cities tend to be affected particularly by the disease with healthcare access inequality playing a big role. Patients often have to travel long distances to see a physician, often facing long waiting times for appointments. Further aggravating the problem is the lack of a system to track patient's symptoms and lung function when they are at home, work or school. Such a system would help identify exacerbations early and trigger an appropriate therapy on a timely manner by a caregiver or healthcare provider.

Breather is developing a medical device and web based platform that will track patients symptoms and respiratory physiology over time. This information is accessible to caregivers and healthcare providers in real time, deteriorations will be detected early so that interventions can prevent costly emergencies and hospitalizations. 

We will be capturing data never collected before such as real time lung function and symptoms, this along with other pertinent information like location, weather and pollution patterns and others can help create a bigger picture of the real problem and potential solutions at the macro level. Furthermore this data can be useful to in targeting interventions in the area of personalized medicine and also in terms of public health policy. 

Breather's device measures lung function in children and adults wherever they are. While this type of technology is available in the hospital and clinics, currently used devices are too big to be used at home. We are building a completely different healthcare model that empowers patients by self monitoring of their symptoms and lung physiology, giving them access to their healthcare providers remotely on a timely manner. Other data collected such as such as location, weather and pollution will help us in finding associations and potentially causes of exacerbations. Machine learning algorithms could help  detect and prevent exacerbations of asthma. 

Breather is developing a pocket size device that measures different variables of lung function. Information is transferred via bluetooth to a mobile application where patient can record symptoms and fill out standardized questionaries that assess level of disease control. This information is then transmitted to a web portal where patients, caregivers and healthcare providers can access that information. In the portal patients can communicate with healthcare providers asynchronously, post questions and have access to educational videos. A live video feature will be added to facilitate patient education and help with medication compliance.

Finalize device ergonomic design to improve user experience

Develop iOS mobile application 

Finish building web portal

Start a pilot study with our patients at the Mercy virtual care center

Submit to FDA

We truly believe that every patient with a chronic lung condition, including asthma should have a means to self monitor their symptoms and lung physiology, this is our goal. Chronic conditions require constant care and monitoring.

We are planning on starting and expanding in the US initially since we are based here. Asthma is a global condition hence we would like to expand to other countries, particularly areas of the world that have very limited access to healthcare. We envision a world where anyone around the world has access to expert respiratory care at their fingertips, regardless of socioeconomic status.

In the US we will approach health plans looking to improve the health of their members while reducing cost. We are also planning on approaching large self insured companies looking to improve healthcare outcomes of their employees. 

Outside the US we will be looking to partner with organizations with boots on the ground to increase their reach and maximize their effort by using Breather as a means of early detection, education and remote management.

Currently we are not out for business yet. We are still building our solution and creating relationships with potential customers. On of them is Mercy, a company I work for and a a large healthcare system in multiple states. They have expressed their desire to buy the solution when ready to use with their chronic disease patient population. Similarly we are also having conversation with other large healthcare systems in the nation.

Asthma affects 18 million adults and about 8 million children in the US. Our first device and program target adolescents and adults initially. A second device and will target exclusively children, adding different user experience and features.

Our first potential customer has about 800 patients with chronic lung disease in their monitoring system, at full penetration there will be about 3,000 patients. 

Once we partner with other healthcare plans and employers we expect to ramp up our efforts pretty fast in the next 3 years.

As a physician and founder I bring passion, drive and over 20 years of expertise in the field of respiratory care. I am well positioned at the frontlines of healthcare and direct patient care. 

My team is a combination of Engineers in the electrical, software, biomedical and Industrial field. In addition I have a team of advisors in the area of healthcare administration, finances, business. 

Within the US our revenue model is based on improved health status, better outcomes and decreased high cost healthcare utilization (ER visits and hospitalizations), particularly with low income, elderly and marginalized populations, those that have both high healthcare utilization and greater need. 

Current trend in healthcare is towards a value based care model where systems that provide better healthcare in a financially responsible manner will be rewarded. We believe this provides a point of entry for Breather to become a leader in the provision of high quality respiratory care. Our remote monitoring device and web based platform will connect patients with their caregivers and healthcare providers, keeping patients at home and healthy. 

Revenue streams will come from a subscription fee for the use of device and platform. Different stakeholders in the healthcare system will have an interest in how our data can help with personalized asthma care, particularly pharmaceutical companies, research organizations. 

Asthma is a global condition and as we move outside the boundaries of the US we hope to penetrate markets where asthma and chronic lung diseases are on the rise such as Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

Becoming part of the Solve community would allow us to share our passion and knowledge with like minded individuals. Getting feedback and mentoring from the community including people who have done it before will be key to our success, particularly as we strive to avoid pitfalls and to reduce our blind spots. Getting introductions to potential business partners would also be beneficial.

Adoption by large healthcare systems could be big barrier and getting introductions to experts in the field and key players would be beneficial.

Expanding to areas outside the US would be a big undertaking and getting to work with the right partners can help tremendously.

From the technology standpoint, having access to software engineers, data scientists and artificial intelligence experts would help us move faster.