Diagnosing and Monitoring Lung Disease in the Community: A Pulmonary Functional Testing-Lab in the Palm of Your Doctor's Hand

TechnoPulm Company was founded in 2016 by flow science and thermodynamics expert Dr. Igor Krivts with over 40 patents and electronic systems developer Yuri Bilenki. They were joined by Shabtay Negry, who added to the fledgling company his extensive experience in managing and leading multidisciplinary startups.

TechnoPulm’s founders were familiar with global data concerning lung disease. They knew it was the world’s third leading cause of death, with some 500 million people worldwide affected, and hundreds of millions more undiagnosed because they lack access to diagnostic device accessible to pulmonologists and family doctors in the community. They realized that a diagnostic device, available to pulmonologists and family doctors and capable of rapidly examining any patient in any location, would foment a revolution in respiratory and family medical care.

It was Krivts who worked out how to compress a lung-function laboratory that includes multiple devices with one of them in the size of a phone booth, bristling with costly equipment, into a simply operated device that fits into the palm of the doctor’s hand.

“Every doctor to whom I brought the idea looked at me incredulously, and said politely that they’d be happy to use such a ‘miracle,’ but it would be impossible to create,” smiles Krivts.

The nascent TechnoPulm made their first lung measurements with the help of senior pulmonologist Dr. Gershon Fink, former director of the Kaplan Medical Center’s Pulmonary Unit near Rehovot and chairman of Israel’s Central League for the Prevention of Lung Diseases and Tuberculosis.

“I was surprised by the good results we got from testing a limited number of patients at my clinic with their technology,” says Dr. Fink. “That’s when I understood that the TechnoPulm team really knew what they were doing, and I had no doubt that they’d succeed where many before them had tried and failed. From that moment, I decided to accompany them.”

While these initial tests were successful, they were not yet wholly satisfactory, and the team worked hard to improve their device before trialing it for full clinical validation. “The trial was conducted with 161 subjects — 91 of them sick and 70 healthy — at the Kaplan Medical Center, approved by the hospital’s Ethics (Helsinki) Committee,” recounts TechnoPulm CEO Negry. “In each subject, the STS device, which fits in your hand and weighs less than 1 lb, performed lung-function test, from spirometry to plethysmography to show full lung-function data. All lung-function indicators measured were then compared with those made by conventional laboratory equipment. Its performance was as good as we’d hoped. Its breakthrough technology is revolutionary, changing the way that respiratory indicators are measured.”

Dr. Krivts explains the science behind the device. “It records measures during the dynamic rather than, as had been usual, the static phase of breathing,” he says. “The change of approach required a sampling device which works differently from conventional equipment, and this was what we developed along with a complex AI mathematical model.” The STS device, from its hardware to algorithms, is patented in Europe and the United States, with additional patents still being filed.

Essentially a mobile lung-function laboratory, the TechnoPulm’s device opens new doors in diagnosis and monitoring. Connected by Bluetooth to the doctor’s computer or mobile phone, it is to hand for family doctors in urban and rural communities, to pediatricians and to pulmonologists, whether their patients are in hospital, in sheltered housing or at home. And as well as diagnosing disease, it also remotely enables real-time medical monitoring of patients and the effectiveness of medications. Long term, its creators hope to see it completely replace the testing currently conducted solely in pulmonary institutes with cumbersome immobile equipment — which are often uncomfortable, hospitals are not accessible to everyone, and risk of nosocomial infections is well known.

The list of lung diseases that this tiny device can diagnose is long. On it are asthma, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, allergies, respiratory infections, cystic fibrosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), tumors, lung scarring, asbestosis and pulmonary disease resulting from COVID-19. It can diagnose patients who are still symptom-free or in the very early stages of illness, according to Negry, long before conventional methods pick up a problem because it accessibility lacks.

“In the US, for example, some 15 million people are diagnosed with COPD,” he says. “But there are another 15 million or so whose diagnosis won’t be apparent for another 10 to 15 years, when the damage wrought by the disease will be irreversible and life-threatening. By identifying COPD earlier, treatment can begin earlier, so far fewer patients reach the serious stage of their illness and its mortality will drop.”

With smoking a major risk factor for development of COPD, Negry and Krivts foresee preventive lung-function testing for smokers, as well as annual school screening for early detection of asthma in youngsters.

“We see great promise in the TechnoPulm STS system for both better public health and for improving the functioning and monetary efficiency of healthcare organizations,” says Negry. “We’re soon to begin a clinical pilot in the community in collaboration with Israel’s leading health insurers. It’s supported by both the country’s Health Ministry and its Innovation Authority, who recognize the device’s possibilities, its contribution to the efficacy of healthcare organizations and its potential to lighten the burden carried by medical teams and patients alike. We’re also currently waiting for regulatory approval from Israel’s Health Ministry and the US Food & Drug Administration.”

Partnered with TechnoPulm