Across the Middle East and North Africa there are an estimated 10.7 million cases of COPD, and nearly 90,000 annual deaths attributed to COPD, making it one of the leading causes of death and disability across the MENA region*.

Globally, access to quality respiratory diagnostics is poor, in part due to an historic lack of innovation in the field. At present it is estimated that at least half of the people who live with COPD remain undiagnosed.

TidalSense is on a mission to change this.

Based in Cambridge, UK, TidalSense have been developing a revolutionary approach to respiratory diagnostic technique for over 10 years. N-Tidal Diagnose (NTD) is being submitted for regulation by the EU MDR as a class 2a medical device in Q1 2024. It will be able to deliver easier, highly accurate and quicker COPD diagnosis than is currently available to clinicians.  Our novel approach combines the use of a newly designed, highly sensitive carbon dioxide sensor, with a diagnostic AI algorithm – bringing innovative technology to COPD diagnostics.

NTD captures expired carbon dioxide, granting detailed insight into lung function based on lung physiology, and providing clinicians with a visual representation of large and small airways obstruction that has been encountered on the expired breath.

Designed with respiratory patients in mind, the NTD sensor works on regular tidal breathing through the mouth, making NTD easy to use and more comfortable for patients while reducing appointment times for patients from 40 minutes down to just five, with a definitive outcome within that time. The portability, 4G connectivity and multi-use sensor allows N-Tidal Diagnose to be deployed across society, removing many of the barriers to health equality across local, national and global populations.

While COPD is the first condition to be diagnosed by TidalSense, the same sensor captures the breath physiology required to enable additional conditions to also be identified. Asthma and other cardiorespiratory conditions will all come online by training and deploying new AI algorithms, giving clinicians a depth and breadth of data previously unseen in a five-minute test.

This development represents a revolution in respiratory medicine. The innovative approach to delivering a diagnostic outcome, without the need for highly trained specialists to administer the test, enables N-Tidal Diagnose to bring innovative, accurate, and rapid respiratory diagnostics to the full spectrum of healthcare settings.

*Feizi, H., Alizadeh, M., Nejadghaderi, S.A. et al. The burden of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and its attributable risk factors in the Middle East and North Africa region, 1990–2019. Respir Res 23, 319 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12931-022-02242-z