Heroic-Faith - Change the game of respiratory monitoring system!
2020-05-26
Heroic-Faith, a unique Taiwan health/biotech startup rises up within the ranks as the Pandemic of COVID-19 spread across the global platform. Frank Wu, one of the founders of Heroic-Faith Medical Science and Raising Children Healthcare Foundation, believes in innovative technology as a methodology of assisting future clinical solutions. Mr. Wu together with Dr. Fu-Shun Hsu (CEO of Heroic-Faith), critical care doctor, strives to improve the current healthcare obstacle from both the aspect of clinical practice and innovative knowledge. With Dr. Hsu’s leadership, Heroic-Faith team sets to develop the monitoring medical equipment required for the intensive care unit (ICU) and the operating room. More notably, Dr. Hsu has served as the Resident and Chief Physician department of Taipei Veterans General Hospital; Chief Physician of ICU at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital; Attending Physician of ICU at National Taiwan University Hospital's Traumatology department (under Dr. Ko Wen-Je); and as the Attending Physician of the Cardiovascular ICU center at Far Eastern Memorial Hospital. With Dr. Hsu’s extensive clinical experiences, he saw the demands of ICU and operating room were not efficiently met, therefore began to launch the first electronic stethoscope product for the respiratory sound of the lungs for ICU patient back in 2017.
Diagnosis of respiratory diseases such as lungs through auscultation is also the basis of related specialist outpatient clinics. In the past, it was mostly a one-time or short-term auscultation judgment. Thus, “the necessity of continuous detection” is the key feature of Heroic-Faith’s AI Remote Lung Sound Monitor (AirMod) that sets itself apart from its competitors. To illustrate the importance of “continuous detection,” Dr. Hsu stated during the interview, “For ICU wards, the breathing and lung sounds will be heard only during shifts, approximately 6-8 times a day. For patients with respiratory-related diseases or symptoms, it is impossible to detect and record changes for a long period of time. Secondary abnormalities, has there been any significant improvement after medication, etc. On the other hand, in the non-intubation anesthesia market, the guideline established by the American Dental Association (ADA) and the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) recommends that anesthesia should be continuously monitored and evaluated for respiratory conditions (done by listening to breathing sounds or detecting Etco2), ASA also stated that by conducting continuous monitoring of respiratory conditions can prevent and reduce 62% of emergencies occurring.”
At the moment, the characteristics of pulmonary imaging infiltration in patients of COVID-19 are obvious. Abnormal breathing sounds as wet rales and wheezing sounds will appear on auscultation. According to the internationally renowned journal “The Lancet” has also published a feature of lung sounds for patients with COVID-19 research article “Characteristics of Pulmonary Auscultation in Patients with 2019 Novel Coronavirus in China.” Within the article, it stated when using an electronic stethoscope, 78% of COVID-19 patients were found to have abnormal breath sounds; however, effective auscultation has always been a very difficult step in isolation wards. On the other hand, delayed diagnosis may cause serious complications, such as acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Thus, it is necessary to utilize a reliable and effective non-invasive early diagnosis for beneficial early treatment and good control of pneumonia symptoms in patients with COVID-19.
In addition, when asked where Heroic-Faith currently stands, and what kind of resources is Heroic-Faith currently look for, Dr. Hsu stated during the interview “Heroic-Faith hopes to use its existing technology to achieve auscultation in an isolated environment, incorporate remote auscultation into medical resources and systems, protect the lives of frontline medical staff, and establish a remote central control system to improve the efficiency of medical resources, diagnosis, treatment, achieve continuous monitoring of remote respiratory sound treat patients, and promote the overall industrial upgrading of Taiwan’s high-end medical materials. I also look forward to the establishment of this remote central pulmonary sound monitoring and analysis system, which can greatly improve Taiwan’s public health medical system and serve as a remote auscultation and respiratory care.”
Lastly, when asked about Heroic-Faith’s future envisions, Dr. Hsu stated Heroic-Faith’s envisions can be break into two categories: Medical and Home. For the medical category, in addition to assisting the diagnosis of chronic lung disease patients and assisting the care of patients with severe intubation, Heroic-Faith’s respiratory monitoring hopes to become the new data index in the future and become the main module of physiological monitoring. Audio auscultation is still a quantitative indicator that the diagnosis method has not yet become a physiological signal. It is hoped that the technical breakthroughs in respiratory measurement and quantitative analysis will become as one of the main indicators of physiological monitoring in the near future. As for future hospital applications, Heroic-Faith will develop a module that integrates with existing physiological monitors and smart ward monitoring systems, eventually becoming a major part of physiological monitoring. Heroic Faith’s technical extension approach is fairly similar to oximeters. It was first used in surgical monitoring, and was widely utilized in intensive care units and general blood oxygen monitoring, and popularized within the home-care application category. As for Home, according to the market report of “Grand View Research” in the United States, the global future spending on respiratory disease care is approximately 77.9 billion USD for pediatric care, 95.8 billion USD for adult health care, and 136 billion USD for elderly health care. As for the application of respiratory monitoring at home, it can be applied to the monitoring of respiratory diseases such as pneumonia, COPD and asthma for both children and adults. Corresponding respiratory conditions can be given to corresponding dilators or inhalers to assist patients with accurate medication to improve respiratory obstruction and discomfort symptoms can also be avoid for further fatal risks.
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