A new report “Counting the Cost of Respiratory Disease”, by Health Enterprise East, has named Aseptika as one of four Medtech companies to watch (1).
The NHS Long Term Plan identified respiratory disease as a top clinical priority, with a need for innovation in paediatric asthma treatment (2).
The report highlighted that hospital admissions due to respiratory diseases have increased sharply over the last seven years at three times the rate of all other admissions (2). 12.7 million people in the UK are now living with respiratory disease, costing the NHS £11 billion per year. The economic cost to the NHS for asthma is approximated at £3 billion each year (3).
The report by the Medtech Navigator, written and delivered by Health Enterprise East and part-funded by the European Development Fund (ERDF), names Aseptika as one of four companies to watch. Aseptika’s Asthma⁺me self-care solution for children aged 6-12 years treated in outpatient clinics with moderate-to-severe or difficult asthma, was one of the innovations highlighted in the report.
Asthma⁺me supports families to self-care with wireless medical monitors, Activ8rlives PUFFClickerᵀᴹ smart tracker for pressurised metered-dose inhalers (pMDIs), medication diaries, trigger alerts for pollution/pollen/weather, symptoms tracking, interactive and printable Care and Action Plans, an extensive integrated educational syllabus and weekly reports going directly into their hospital records. This evidence-based integrated solution has been co-designed with a leading NHS paediatrician, to significantly reduce utilisation of NHS services by families of these children.
The other SME companies included in the report were: Cambridge Respiratory Innovations Ltd, My mHealth and Owlstone Medical.
Asthma is particularly prevalent in children, with around 20% of all patients (1.1 million) under the age of 15-year in the UK (4), of which 110,000 have moderate-to-severe or difficult asthma with an estimated cost to the NHS of £500 million each year (5).
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References
Counting the Cost of Respiratory Disease: A MedTech Navigator Report. February 6, 2020.
NHS Long Term Plan https://www.longtermplan.nhs.uk/
NHS England https://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/clinical-policy/respiratory-disease/
Grand View Research https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/respiratory-disease-testing-market
Health economic estimates from Aseptika’s randomised controlled trial in collaboration with Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust https://www.activ8rlives.com/news/asthmame-the-app-being-trialled-to-help-children-manage-severe-asthma/
Notes to the Editor:
How does Asthma⁺me work?
Asthma⁺me was co-designed with a Paediatrician at an NHS Trust (UK) supporting the transition from treatment in specialist paediatric clinics to community care, with an initial focus on meeting the needs of children aged 6-12 years with moderate-to-severe asthma. It supports wireless medical monitors, including the Activ8rlives PUFFClicker™ smart tracker for pressurised metered-dose inhalers (pMDIs), medication diaries, trigger alerts for pollution/pollen/weather, symptoms tracking, care plan, extensive educational syllabus and weekly reports going directly to their hospital records. Asthma⁺me was launched in October 2018 and CE marked as a Class I Medical Device.
The Asthma⁺me App is used with the Activ8rlives PUFFClicker™ smart tracker for pMDIs prescribed for use by children (Ivax, GlaxoSmithKline, Teva and Chiesi), counting doses, recording inhaler shaken properly and timer supporting improved inhaler technique.
Asthma⁺me provides asthma disease monitoring via connected peak flow and other medical monitors, patient educational, medication adherence, motivational support through self-care to reduce severity of asthma attacks, A&E attendances and hospital admissions.
Children are involved in setting their goals and are motivated by incentives from their parent/carer to promote behaviour change, increasing adherence to their Care and Action Plan, which is generated automatically on their Smartphone.
How does it benefit clinicians / patients?
The lack of medication adherence is a global problem, £300million worth of medications/year wasted in primary care and 50% patients not taking medication as prescribed. The cost associated with treating all types of asthma is significant and there are 10% of these children with asthma that are clinically-defined moderate-to-severe or difficult-to-treat asthma and should be treated in specialist paediatric clinics.
Further information:
Activ8rlives, Activ8rlives.com, Asthma⁺me and Active⁺me are trademarks of Aseptika Ltd.
For more information about the paediatric asthma solution Asthma⁺me, call Jessica Auton on +44 (0)1480 352 821 or email jessica.auton@aseptika.com. Watch a video about Asthma⁺me here.