AI HEALTHCARE
A new AI-powered test could make it much quicker and easier to spot chronic obstructive disease (COPD), a serious lung condition that affects around 3 million people in the UK.
Right now, two-thirds of people with COPD don’t even know they have it.
It’s the second biggest cause of emergency hospital admissions, but getting a diagnosis isn’t easy.
The usual method, spirometry, takes time, energy, and often a long wait for an appointment at a specialist hub.
That’s where the new N-Tidal Diagnoses device comes in.
It’s handled, takes just five minutes, and can be used during a regular GP visit.
Patients breathe into it as they normally would, and the device sends carbon dioxide data to the cloud.
AI then steps in to analyse the results instantly and check for signs of COPD.
Here’s what stands out:
COPD is behind 1 in 8 emergency hospital admissions in the UK.
The new test takes just 5 minutes and uses AI to analyse normal breathing.
It could ease pressure on the NHS by cutting costs and reducing delays.
No more puff-and-wait
GPs say this could speed things up, help start treatment earlier, and avoid the risk of putting patients on the wrong medication.
The AI behind the device has been trained on more than 2.5 million breaths and can tell the difference between COPD and other conditions like asthma, heart failure, or lung cancer.
It’s already approved for use across the EU and could be rolling out to GP practices in the next few weeks.
So we’ve just been wheezing for no reason, huh?