A telespirometer for the developing world

Abstract

There are numerous examples in which the introduction of expensive medical equipment into the developing world fail for lack of a basic understanding of the device operation, lack of spare parts and poor maintenance. This paper describes the development of a Fleisch pneumotachograph and cellphone based telespirometer that can easily be built from “junk box” medical and electronic components available in the developing world. This approach should introduce a sense of local ownership to the project as well as encouraging participation by the local electronics repair industry. Experimental results confirm that the forced expiratory flow data are reliably modulated onto an audio signal and transmitted by cellphone to a base station for examination by a district nurse or doctor. Flow measurement and data transmission accuracies are sufficiently good for remote diagnoses of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.