AstraZeneca with Alveofit to scale up diagnosis, treatment of lung diseases in India

Ensures last mile delivery of holistic respiratory care with IoT-enabled spirometers

Under the aegis of its A Catalyst network, AstraZeneca India announced its partnership with Alveofit, a SaaS-IoT enabled respiratory healthcare platform, to offer IoT-enabled handheld spirometers at hospitals across the country.

The partnership aims to embed the latest technological advancements in diagnosing and managing lung disorders and associated non-communicable diseases like asthma, pulmonary fibrosis and COPD.

Commenting on the partnership, Dr Anil Kukreja, VP – Medical Affairs & Regulatory, AstraZeneca India, said, “AstraZeneca continues to prioritise its vision to reduce the burden of lifestyle disorders and NCDs on the healthcare systems through meaningful interventions and partnerships. As a part of that, we are deeply invested in innovating and finding ways to develop a sustainable way to accelerate, improve and scale up holistic respiratory care across the country. Regular monitoring of lung functions and continuous engagement with care providers improve the overall treatment efficacy, and early prognosis of respiratory distress reduces emergency hospital visits. Our partnership with Alveofit is a firm step towards collaboratively reducing respiratory ailments, complications and morbidity rates through constant patient monitoring, HCP education and improving respiratory health for all.”

As a part of this partnership with Alveofit, AstraZeneca will provide Alveofit IoT-enabled handheld spirometers to the clinics and last mile hospitals to enable point-of-care spirometry for the optimised management of different lung-associated non-communicable diseases. This will help track patients remotely and even conduct telespirometry with comprehensive care management solutions.

AstraZeneca’s A Catalyst Network embodies its commitment to harness the power of science and make health happen for as many people, in as many countries, in as many ways, as possible.

Highlighting the essence of this dynamic globally interconnected function at the organisation, Gagandeep Singh, Country President AstraZeneca India said, “We believe patient experiences and outcomes are a shared responsibility and innovation doesn’t happen in isolation. Through collaborative innovation, we aspire to address current healthcare challenges, increase affordable and equitable access to healthcare and showcase patient-enabled innovation through partnerships within the health ecosystem. Our ultimate aim is to strengthen and future-proof health systems across the whole patient journey, ensuring everyone has equitable and affordable access to the life-changing healthcare solutions they need, regardless of where they live.”

As a part of the partnership with Alveofit, AstraZeneca has deployed spirometers at selected hospitals across the country. This includes ESIC hospitals for industrial employees, Command and Military Hospitals, General Hospitals and last mile clinics in cities like Lucknow, Chennai, Nagpur, Delhi, Ahmedabad and Kolkata. In a pilot project conducted before starting this initiative, 2800+ patients were tested and around 35-40 per cent were diagnosed with lung issues across all the age groups right from 10-12 years old to 85-90 years old through this deployment.

Commenting on this initiative, Dr Prashant Patel, Founder – CEO Alveofit said, “Alveofit-AstraZeneca collaboration is helping the basic respiratory disease diagnostics affordable and accessible at the last mile in public health infrastructure as well as through the corner clinics. These diseases disproportionately affect low-income populations given the nature of their living and working conditions. This deployment was the need of the hour given the rising pollution and post-COVID-19 world aiding the diagnosis of respiratory diseases early in the cycle, stopping them from progressing ahead and helping raise the standard of life of the patients leading them to live symptom-free life.”

AstraZeneca has been creating new ways to help people manage their health. Insights from patients and caregivers from diverse communities have helped the company to create new practices and technologies that allow people to take an active role in their health through tools such as digital sensors, integrated apps, connected devices and artificial intelligence. As a next step, AstraZeneca and Alveofit are planning to expand this initiative to tier-II and tier-III towns across India to make the basic respiratory diagnosis and care accessible for everyone.

Alveofit won the JANCare Innovation Challenge that was organised jointly by BIRAC and NASSCOM CoE, a partner of ISHIC.