AstraZeneca India, Alveofit join hands to offer IoT-enabled handheld spirometers

AstraZeneca India has tied up with Alveofit, a SaaS-IoT (Internet of Things) enabled respiratory healthcare platform, to offer IoT-enabled handheld spirometers to hospitals. The collaboration aims to incorporate the latest technological advancements in diagnosing and managing lung disorders and associated noncommunicable diseases such as asthma, pulmonary fibrosis, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). “We are deeply committed to innovating and discovering new ways to accelerate, improve, and scale up holistic respiratory care across the country. Regular monitoring of lung functions and ongoing engagement with care providers improve overall treatment efficacy, and early detection of respiratory distress reduces emergency trips to the hospital,” said Dr Anil Kukreja, VP-Medical Affais and Regulatory, AstraZeneca India. The company will provide Alveofit IoT-enabled handheld spirometers to the clinics and last mile hospitals to enable point-of-care spirometry for the optimised management of different lung-associated non-communicable diseases. This will help track patients remotely and even conduct tele-spirometry with comprehensive care management solutions, said the release. “The collaboration will make basic respiratory disease diagnostics affordable and accessible at the last mile of public health infrastructure and through corner clinics. These diseases disproportionately affect the low-income population given the nature of their living and working conditions,” said Dr Prashant Patel, founder, CEO, Alveofit. AstraZeneca has already deployed spirometers at selected hospitals across the country which includes Employee’s State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) hospitals for industrial employees, command and military hospitals, general hospitals, and last-mile clinics in Lucknow, Chennai, Nagpur, Delhi, Ahmedabad, and Kolkata. In a pilot project conducted before starting this initiative, more than 2800 patients were tested and around 35–40 per cent were diagnosed with lung issues across all the age groups.