James Hugall, PhD; Petra Stockinger, PhD; Rodolfo Plaza Herz, Msc | Breaz Medical SL
Competition Sponsor: EIT Health of the European Union
Awardee Year: 2022
Chronic respiratory diseases affect 1 in 10 people globally and sadly many are misdiagnosed or not diagnosed at all due to the invisible slow-progressing nature of these diseases. Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) has an underdiagnosis rate of 75% and causes 3 million deaths per year, making it the third cause of death. This disease causes huge disability and many hospitalizations with huge costs to society estimated to be around EUR 400 billion globally. Early interventions are key to delay or stop disease progression and to avoid much of this devastation. However, practical solutions for the early and accurate diagnosis of these diseases are currently not available.
BREAZ Medical SL is a Barcelona based MedTech startup simplifying lung health diagnostics. They are currently developing a novel solution for accessible diagnosis and monitoring of lung diseases in resource-limited settings like primary care, starting with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
By detecting chronic respiratory diseases earlier and improving the accuracy of the diagnosis in community settings, they want to reduce the huge burden in society of these diseases to improve patient quality of life, reduce mortality and reduce hospitalization.
BREAZ was formed in 2020 after witnessing the devastating impact seen in hospitals caused by the late and incorrect diagnosis of chronic diseases. In 2021, they won public grants of over €320K and have established a close clinical partnership to finish their technology demonstrator and trials.
Keywords: prevention; respiratory disease; COPD; screening; diagnosis;
To learn more about this proposal, email healthylongevity@nas.edu.