Houston, TX and Philadelphia, PA, August 22, 2019 – An innovative program at Harris County Public Health is aiming to bring remote patient access to under-served Houston children suffering from asthma. Leading-edge technology from Strados Labs, the creator of the Strados System, will be used to record lung sounds of pediatric patients to collect information that may lead to better patient education among this population. William Hudson, MPH, MSMOB, CSSBB, CPHQ, Director of the agency’s Public Health Innovations Lab, discovered Strados Labs’ technology at an innovation demo and immediately knew his community could benefit from the device and its platform.
“The wearable technology from Strados Labs will provide clinicians with information about respiratory sounds in real-world settings to better understand what occurs before an asthma attack, or in between asthma related doctor’s visits,” explains Hudson. “In the future, Strados’ innovative platform may allow us to monitor their incidents and help predict when they occur and share that data with their physician.”
The Strados System’s respiratory solution consists of a small, lightweight non-invasive stethoscope that records lung sounds and accesses them via a digital clinician portal. Once the device has recorded the patient lung sounds, the clinician is able to access them remotely at any time for analysis. In the future, a proprietary algorithm may process and extract respiratory acoustics and highlight any changes in respiratory patterns for physician analysis. “Just as remote heart monitors revolutionized the diagnostics and treatment of heart disease, Strados Labs is providing new insights for clinical teams with its remote pulmonary platform,” explains Strados Labs’ CEO and Co-Founder Nick Delmonico, CPA, MBA. “After experiencing asthma as a child, I know the challenges that are presented in quantifying the clinical signs and symptoms in the real-world. The Strados System will enable communication to the asthma care team remotely and entirely hands-free.”
This program marks the beginning of a partnership between Strados Labs and Harris County Public Health that focuses on the collection of valuable data to better understand lung sounds and pediatric asthma to implement effective education.
“Some might be surprised to find out that a public health agency would be so heavily interested in innovation,” Hudson commented. “We are committed to achieving health equity in our community by providing quality access to more people regardless of their race, economics and demographics. Utilizing innovative technologies are a great way to do that, while also supporting emerging start-ups that can make a difference in the quality of healthcare.”
Harris County Public Health launched their vision of the Public Health Innovations Lab in January 2018. The innovation lab successfully merges the concepts of business startup accelerator programs with best public health practices. Their Executive Director, Dr. Umair A. Shah, MD, MPH, explains the importance of focusing on the three V’s of public health, visibility, value and validation, to achieve their goals. The lab’s mission is to help shape the future of public health by supporting the advancement of novel inventions into sustainable projects to ultimately improve health in communities.
The Strados System is for investigational use only and is not cleared or approved by FDA or any regulatory agency. The product is not available for sale in the USA or internationally.
About Strados Labs
Strados Labs enables clinicians to enhance the management of respiratory health across the patient’s transition from the hospital to home. The Strados System objectively measures respiratory health allowing providers to remotely access at-risk patients using a novel biosensor. Please visit www.stradoslabs.com to learn more.
About Harris County Public Health
Harris County Public Health is the local public health agency for the Harris County, Texas jurisdiction. It provides a wide variety of public health activities and services aimed at improving the health and well-being of the Harris County community. Follow the program on Twitter @hcphtx, on Facebook and online at www.hcphtx.org.
If you would like more information about this pilot program, please call Alexis Taylor at (410) 929-6552, or email alexis@stradoslabs.com.