At-Home Monitoring Device Could Improve Asthma Care for Pediatric Patients

Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children's is launching a new program for children with asthma that tracks a child's respiration and aids early detection of breathing problems via a smart, wearable stethoscope.

The at-home monitoring device is designed to track early signs of asthma and provides clinicians with continuous or on-demand remote monitoring of lung sounds. The real-time data enables healthcare professionals to monitor a child's condition between clinic visits and respond early if a child's symptoms worsen.

The easy-to-wear device, called AeviceMD, was developed by Aevice Health, a Singaporean digital health company and a graduate of the Cedars-Sinai Accelerator program.

"I saw strong potential in this technology to support how we monitor and manage children with reactive airway issues like asthma outside of the clinical setting," said Irina Dralyuk, MD, a pediatric pulmonologist at Guerin Children's. "Being able to assess respiratory symptoms in real time, especially overnight, provides valuable information that can guide earlier intervention and help prevent more serious breathing complications."

About 4.5 million children in the United States have asthma, making it one of the most common chronic pediatric diseases. Traditionally, doctors have monitored children with asthma through periodic clinic visits and caregiver-reported symptoms such as rapid breathing, chest congestion and breathing difficulties.

However, asthma symptoms often fluctuate widely between visits, and self-reported symptoms are often unreliable. This makes managing worsening symptoms between appointments very difficult.

The wearable stethoscope allows parents to utilize the device at home to record lung sounds and securely share recordings with their doctors. The data enables doctors to build a more complete picture of disease progression, track medication use and assess how patients' symptoms evolve in response to their treatment plan.

"What we're trying to do is prevent exacerbations, reduce hospitalizations and emergency department visits, and limit the need for interventions such as systemic steroid use to control asthma symptoms," Dralyuk said. "Intervening early could decrease chronic inflammation and improve lung function and health over time."

Children can wear the device, about the size of a half-dollar coin, on the chest for up to 10 hours a day. It is designed for use in children 3 and older.

"We built AeviceMD to make this kind of continuous symptom visibility possible. Having our technology deployed at a large, world-class health system like Cedars-Sinai validates our belief that there is a critical, unmet patient need," said Adrian Ang, CEO of Aevice Health.

The device is the result of a multiyear collaboration with Cedars-Sinai that began in 2022 and included clinical input from physicians at Guerin Children's. The collaboration included key regulatory milestones and a pilot program to evaluate the device's effectiveness in pediatric respiratory monitoring. In 2023, the device received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

"This collaboration demonstrates the importance of providing clinical and operational support to help advance a company's promising technology toward real-world patient benefit," said Nirdesh K. Gupta, PhD, managing partner of Cedars-Sinai Intellectual Property Company. "It's an exciting example of how innovation can directly impact care and improve the way we manage chronic conditions like asthma."

Read more from Cedars-Sinai Stories and Insights: Common Breathing Problems in Kids and How to Treat Them