Smart vest asthma treatment for children

Asthma is the most common chronic disease among children, with many suffering attacks and emergency hospital visits that lead to a decrease in quality of life and a subsequent increase in healthcare costs. CPI’s work with ItoM Medical aims to deliver a step-change in treatment by providing sufferers with the opportunity to take control of the disease and create a better life for themselves and their parents.

During the project, CPI will use its technical capabilities to support the development of a working demonstrator of the device, bringing to the fore its experience in screen printing, attaching technologies for wearable electronics, and support to take products to pilot manufacture.

The project is also benefiting from utilising ItoM’s innovative surface-ElectroMyoGraphy (sEMG) technology, which, when attached to a flexible printed circuit and connected to the patient via a smart vest, is comfortable for the wearer and easy to operate in the home environment. 

Blumorpho is working on the project by supporting the complex business needs for the legislative requirements and routes into the medical device market, developing a strong value proposition for the device across many EU healthcare systems.

The project is part of the wider SmartEEs programme, which is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme and aims to support companies with the development of new business ideas using flexible electronics technologies. This is being implemented through a Call for Application Experiments, with SmartEEs selecting and supporting 20 Application Experiments aimed at generating business success stories.

Sandy Gunn, Business Development Manager at CPI, said: “This is an interesting and exciting project for CPI, bringing together CPI’s conductive printing experience with ItoM Medical’s semi-conductor expertise. The application area is very important and worthwhile, I’m sure it will be welcomed by the parents of children with asthma.

“The advantage of working through the SmartEEs Project for all parties is that initial demonstrators can be carried out at very low risk. The international collaboration aspect ensures that the end user has access to the most appropriate facilities in Europe.’

Jurryt Vellinga, CEO at ItoM Medical, added: “Every innovation in the medical field begins with small steps of research and feasibility studies. It is these small steps that are sometimes difficult for smaller companies to take or finance. The SmartEEs project is a great help in this, connecting the companies and institutes with the required knowledge to create new products and treatments.

“The asthma monitoring solution we are developing is such a new product. It is empowering children to control their asthma and lead normal lives, to participate in sports at school, for example. This is a huge step towards improving their quality of life.”