Cipla's portable, wireless spirometer to ease diagnosis of COPD, asthma

"With  this  launch, the  company intends  to  revolutionise  Obstructive  Airway  Disease  (OAD)  diagnosis,  in  line with  its  ambition  to  strengthen its  position  as  the  lung  leader  in  India.  This  a  part  of  the Company’s  #LungAttack  campaign  that  endeavors to drive  awareness about COPD and  encourage  early  diagnosis," the statement read.

Currently,  COPD remains  the  second most common cause  of  death  in  India  after  heart  diseases,  where  India alone  bears  32 percent  of  the  global  COPD  burden.

The device has been developed after five years of meticulous  in-house research by the Integrated Product  Development  (IPD) team, and is aimed at transforming Obstructive Airway Disease (OAD) diagnosis in India.

Cipla said Spirofy is wireless and is bult to provide good battery back up making  it  suitable  for  use in  outdoor  camps,  remote areas  with  power shortages,  or  simply  providing  physicians'  flexibility  and  ease of use.

"This  advanced  device  ensures  high  result  accuracy  and individual  patient  safety  using  Bacterial  Viral  Filters," it said.

The device  generates reports in real-time, which can be  printed using a portable wireless thermal printer instantly, or a pdf version can be  shared  on the  phone. 

The Indian drug major said it  will  train physicians in the interpretation of spirometry results.

Conventional spirometers are bulky, have complex functionality and need regular maintenance.  These factors hindered its widespread acceptance by medical professionals though spirometry is the  gold standard for  COPD  diagnosis.

This resulted  in  underdiagnosis or misdiagnosis of COPD cases in India. 

Commenting on  the  launch, Umang Vohra (MD and Global  CEO,  Cipla  Limited) said, "Cipla  has  been  steadfastly  focused  on  addressing  the  world's  growing  respiratory disease burden,  and  with  this  launch,  we see  ourselves  steadily  advancing  to combat chronic  respiratory  ailments  like  COPD.  The  Spirofy launch  aims  to  help doctors across the  country  to improve  lives  of  patients  through  accurate  and  affordable  diagnosis."