A Low-Cost Lung Monitoring Point-of-Care Device Based on a Flexible Piezoresistive Flow Sensor

This work presents the development of a piezoresistive flow sensor-based low-cost point-of-care lung monitoring device. The objective of the study is to find an affordable and accessible solution for pulmonary health diagnosis and monitoring. The proposed biomedical device consists of an ergonomically designed cylindrical mouthpiece, a flexible piezoresistive sensor, and an electronics unit for detection, signal processing, and transmission of the derived signal. The flexible piezoresistive sensor acts as a transducer for the device by exhibiting a change in resistance when subjected to the airflow from the user's breath. Preliminary tests for lung monitoring such as peak expiratory flow rate test and breathing frequency tests were conducted using the device developed in the current study in order to identify its detection, health monitoring and telemedicine capabilities.