PN Medical, Orbita Partner to Advance At-Home Care for COPD

PN Medical and Orbita announced they have formed a partnership to leverage Orbita’s next-generation digital platform with its own products, designed to enable clinicians to better monitor and support patients with chronic conditions like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), hypertension, and congestive heart failure.

“In 1980, we were first to market with The Breather, our revolutionary respiratory device. Now, thanks to our partnership with Orbita, we’re leading the way again in transforming healthcare at home,” Mark A. Carbone, PN Medical’s chief executive officer, said in a press release.  Orbita, he added, is  “the only technology provider that met all of our requirements for creating this smart, connected care application.”

Orbita’s  platform gathers data from wearables, home-health devices, and other connected devices into a collaborative care experiences to improve patient engagement and care coordination.

PN Medical also announced that it has updated its home-care product, launching ‘The Breather+, a respiratory muscle training (RMT) device that relies on Bluetooth technology, and works as a diagnostic to measure lung capacity while improving breathing function through therapeutic inhaling and exhaling exercises. Data is relayed to the Orbita-powered practitioner dashboard via the Breather+ mobile app, allowing for real-time monitoring and managing of patients.

The Breather+ is designed to help improve breathing function in patients with shortness of breath, speech impairment, and swallowing problems. The RMT device has special sensors that capture lung function and patient adherence data, which is then instantly sent to Orbita’s physician dashboard via a mobile app.

Besides COPD, The Breather+ is also indicated for patients with congestive heart failure, hypertension and dysphagia.

Carbone’s involvement with PN Medical began after seeing his two parents struggle with cardiac and pulmonary conditions. “I witnessed the patient/provider breakdown firsthand and was emboldened to find a way to do something about it,” he said. “Anything to keep my dad from going back to the hospital when he could stay home was his wish to me. This new technology is allowing us to do just that.”

With the Breather+ device and platform, it is possible to support early intervention and more targeted, tailored treatment. Carbone believes this will not only reduce emergency room visits, but also improve the quality of life of these patients, similarly to what the original Breather has done for the past three decades.