Hospital-acquired pneumonia is one of the most common infections developed in a healthcare setting. Hospitalized patients, especially after surgery, are often immobile, and this lack of movement, along with weakened respiratory muscles from surgery and anesthesia, results in shallow breathing and reduced airflow in the lungs. As a result, mucus accumulates easily, making it easy for infection to develop.
In the U.S. alone, the healthcare system sees 140,000 cases of pneumonia readmissions annually. Because the hospital is responsible for the additional costs of readmission or prolonged stay, hospital-acquired pneumonia costs the U.S. healthcare system over $10 billion annually.
In order to prevent pneumonia, hospitals implement a set of protocols that includes incentive spirometry. An incentive spirometer is a small, hand-held plastic ventilator that helps patients practice deep breathing to exercise their lungs. Patients are advised to take deep breaths with the incentive spirometer about 10 times every hour to expand their lungs, gain strength, and help prevent lung infections. Almost all postoperative patients are prescribed this therapy during their hospital stay.
However, one of the primary challenges with incentive spirometry is ensuring patient compliance. In a comprehensive survey, 86% of clinicians believed that patient adherence to traditional incentive spirometry exercises is poor and 95% believed that incentive spirometry exercises adherence should be improved. Another challenge is getting patients to perform the exercises in a way that sufficiently moves enough air in and out of their lungs during each breath.
This is where Tidal Medical Technologies comes in. The company’s InSee Smart Incentive Spirometry System provides a reusable smart sensor that attaches to existing disposable incentive spirometers. The system offers two primary features:
- Patient Reminder: It reminds patients to use the device while tracking their performance and relays outcome data back to hospital staff in order to track compliance and therapy efficacy.
- Positive Reinforcement: The patient’s respiratory therapist or nurse can program individualized goals, which are communicated to the patient with audible and visual feedback when the patient reaches the goal.
The InSee continuously tracks frequency and inspiratory volumes—the amount of air that moves in and out of the lungs with every breath—empowering clinicians’ decision-making with objective data that allows them to intervene if needed. By monitoring and encouraging more frequent and consistent usage of the incentive spirometer, the InSee system helps achieve all the potential benefits of incentive spirometry without the presence of a healthcare provider.
CEO Mehdi Arani is one of the visionaries behind the InSee device. Arani studied biomedical engineering and enjoyed a successful career in the medtech commercial sector for 20 years before launching Tidal Medical Technologies. In 2018, his best friend from college, Alex Farahmand, MD, approached him with an idea for an invention. The idea came from Alex’s brother, also a longtime friend of Arani’s and a professor with a PhD in electrical engineering. Together the trio worked on the idea, refining their prototype. In 2020, their application was fast tracked thanks to the FDA’s Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) program, which allowed them to gain EUA approval and get one step closer to bringing their device to the market.
Recently, Tidal Medical joined Fogarty’s Company Accelerator Program with the goal of advancing its commercialization plans and gaining early user feedback from clinicians at Fogarty partner El Camino Health. They have submitted the InSee device for 510k FDA clearance and launched multiple clinical studies with the goal of achieving a limited launch of the product in Q1 of next year.
The InSee Smart Incentive Spirometry System represents a significant step forward in preventing hospital-acquired pneumonia and improving postoperative care. By combining smart technology with a simple yet powerful respiratory tool, InSee empowers both patients and clinicians to take a proactive approach to lung health. As Tidal Medical prepares for its product launch, the InSee system holds the potential to reshape how hospitals manage respiratory care, ultimately improving patient outcomes and easing the burden on the healthcare system.