A Smarter Inhaler for Asthmatic Kids

December 3, 2012

Kaufmann felt frustrated when using a bulky nebulizer machine to treat his preschooler’s asthma. Nebulizers are effective, but they require the parent to prepare the dose of liquid medication and take a long time to deliver it to a squirming child. Kaufmann knew that dry powder inhalers do a better, faster job with less risk of error and contamination, but small children—as well as very ill people, the elderly, and those with certain disabilities—cannot use them properly. “You must inhale a certain volume, not too fast, and not too slow. It’s not simple,” he says.

Kaufmann and Steuer created a “smart” dry powder inhaler with several key advantages over existing models. Its internal microcontroller and flow sensor detect the right time to deliver the medication and automatically disperse the drug particles in the right size without need for forceful inhalation. It provides instant feedback to indicate if the patient is inhaling correctly and a beeper when the whole dose has been delivered.

In a boon for doctors, the Inspiromatic also stores information that takes the guesswork out of treatment decisions. “It knows if the patient really inhaled correctly or didn’t, so the physician can access this data and see if the drug was delivered successfully—and if not, why not,” says Kaufmann. “We just got Health Ministry approval for our first clinical trial…This is a drug-device combination product, meaning it must have a [drug] formulation designed to be used with the specific device.”

The long-term goal is to get approval in both the European and American markets. By that time, Kaufmann’s son may have outgrown his asthma entirely. But there will be plenty of other kids around the world whose parents will be happy to have a device that makes treatment a breeze. For more information: www.inspiromedical.com; nimrod@inspiromedical.com

Source: Excerpts of an article by Abigail Klein Leichman, www.israel21c.org