The team at Milton, Ontario-based telehealth company, Tech4Life Enterprises, approached the CMI's Director, Dr. Edward Sykes, in 2017 about leveraging Sheridan's expertise through an applied research partnership. Principal Investigator, Dr. Tarek El Salti, a professor in Sheridan's Honours Bachelor of Computer Science (Mobile Computing) program and third-year student researcher, Warren Zajac, have since championed the project, bringing it from idea to proof of concept in just over a year. Financial support has been provided from Tech4Life and through a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada grant.
NewPneu consists of a circuit board with biometric sensors to capture respiratory rate and blood-oxygen level (Sp02), two measurements commonly used to detect pneumonia in children, and an Android mobile health app to receive data via Bluetooth. Currently available pneumonia-detection systems are proprietary and cost approximately $990 EUR for the circuit board alone. Parts for Sheridan's NewPneu board cost only $10 USD. Commercially available products can run for 24 hours before requiring a charge, while NewPneu runs for up to 156 hours with energy efficient components.
With support from the Sheridan Research Ethics Board, the CMI team conducted human testing of NewPneu. Using a gold-standard, hospital-grade device for comparison, they gathered data from participants after three levels of physical activity - sitting, walking on a level surface and climbing a flight of stairs. In all three instances, the results from the gold-standard device and NewPneu were comparable with statistically significant correlations. "We were thrilled at this validation," says Dr. El Salti. "It is a testament to Warren's hardware and software design skills."
Tech4Life's Global CEO and Lead Researcher, Dr. Shariq Khoja, is impressed by the work of Sheridan's team in co-creating technology with potential to meaningfully address a major global health concern. "Sheridan's team has shown great expertise, designing a device that can be scaled for use globally," he says. "Health providers I have spoken with are intrigued by NewPneu and feel that it will strengthen health systems by empowering thousands of health providers in early diagnosis of pneumonia, saving the lives of young children."
MEDICA-tradefair.com; Source: Sheridan College
