Joseph Balfe has come up with a wearable smart device which can detect and relieve asthma attacks by opening the airways in the lungs with nerve stimulation.
New Zealand has one of the highest rates of asthma in the world with 600,000 people taking inhaled medication, and there are 7000 hospitalisations each year, costing the country $1 billion annually.
"The very sad thing is that most of the deaths are actually preventable, due to a simple delay in obtaining inhaled medications during the final attack."
The 25-year-old recently presented his proposed device at the Falling Walls Lab Aotearoa New Zealand competition, and won.
During his pitch, Mr Balfe said when someone had a severe asthma attack, there was only a small window of time for inhaled medications to reach the lungs.
"When your airways begin to constrict, in a process known as bronchoconstriction, it’s only a matter of minutes before the inhaled medications can no longer reach the target areas — the target areas being the deep, smaller airways within the lungs.
"It becomes a race to beat the obstruction of the airways."
The idea for the device came up while he was doing his master’s of science thesis on neuroscience at the University of Otago.
"I became very interested in this therapeutic application called non-invasive neuro modulation, which is any means of interacting with the nervous system through external agents.
"For example, electrical stimulation — that’s what I use.
"During my very first meeting with my master’s superviser [Associate Prof Yusuf Cakmak], we came up with this idea that we could perhaps interact with the airways non-invasively.
"Because I have asthma, I thought if this works, it could make a huge difference."
The device is called VentiMate, and was designed to be worn between the shoulder blades, Mr Balfe said.
"Our technology works by non-invasively stimulating the nerve pathway that’s responsible for opening the small airways.
"So far, we’ve shown in three randomised, placebo-controlled trials that we can prevent exercise-induced bronchoconstriction in healthy humans by non-invasively opening the small airways in real time."
It was still too early to say if the device would negate the need for asthma inhalers.
At this stage, the focus was on using the device to help open the airways of someone having a severe asthma attack, quickly enough for them to be able to suck medication deep into their lungs within the required window.
"Our ultimate goal is to develop a device that works as a closed-loop system, meaning that it will continuously monitor for an asthma attack and immediately apply stimulation before it becomes a life-threatening emergency."
As well as juggling his day job, he is working with a team, planning a large-scale clinical trial in people with asthma to clinically validate the technology.
Mr Balfe is also busy preparing to represent New Zealand at the Falling Walls Lab Global Finale, in Berlin, in November.
While he was delighted with winning the competition, the real reward was that his invention could pave the way for major changes to the way the world treats asthma, he said.
"That’s a really important part for me.
"It’s clear that we need to start thinking outside the box for treating asthma and for many other chronic conditions."
