CORMORANT
Research type
Research Study
Full title
COPD tRansforMation of diagnOstic pathways in pRimary cAre using N-Tidal
IRAS ID
329554
Contact name
Helen Ashdown
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Oxford
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an incurable medical condition that causes breathing problems because of lung damage. Although common, many people do not know they have it: in the UK, almost half of people affected have not been diagnosed. This is a big problem because people are often diagnosed after too much damage has been done, and their quality of life is already poor. Diagnosing COPD early would mean more could be done to prevent the condition getting worse and give the option of new treatments, giving patients a better chance of living a longer, active life. The difficulties of performing spirometry, the test used to diagnose COPD, contribute to missed or late diagnosis. It involves blowing hard and fast into a machine that measures lung capacity, which is difficult for people to do. It is also time-consuming and must be done by a trained healthcare professional (HCP), which uses up staff time in GP surgeries.
TidalSense has built an easy-to-use, CE-marked device called N-Tidal. Patients breathe in and out normally and N-Tidal measures a gas that everyone breathes out called Carbon Dioxide (CO2). The device shows how the level of CO2 in the breath changes over time. TidalSense collected results in hospitals from people already diagnosed with various breathing conditions. Using artificial intelligence, TidalSense’s computer program (N-Tidal Diagnose) learned to distinguish between those with and without COPD. New patients can now use N-Tidal and the program can say if they have COPD or not, in under 5 minutes and without necessitating special training.
This research investigate the accuracy of COPD diagnosis from N-Tidal Diagnose compared to the standard spirometry in primary care. We will also gather qualitative evidence on the value N-tidal from patients and healthcare professionals.REC name
South Central - Oxford A Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
25/SC/0103
Date of REC Opinion
9 Apr 2025
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion