Overview

Human activities such as investigations, interviews, various forms of teaching, and popularization are used to make our project more practical and accessible to the public. We sought a means to incorporate everyone in our human practice job, from high school students to experts; from the general public to small children..

Timeline

Information Collection

Investigation: Data Research (We began to learn about COPD,an unseen killer lurking about us.)

Based on a preliminary data study conducted in April, we discovered that Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a serious threat to people's health globally. It affects an estimated 384 million people worldwide and is responsible for more than 3.2 million deaths per year. Regardless of the public health risk posed by COPD, diagnostic procedures must be improved since many COPD patients are still misdiagnosed as having pneumonia, particularly in rural regions where public awareness of the condition is low. Only in China, around 99 million people, or 1/13 of the entire population, have the illness, with the vast majority of them being ignorant of it. It's time to act.

Investigation: Public Research (We designed a questionnaire, while the wind of social media helped us out.)

As we ourselves already fully understand the severe problems brought by COPD, it's time to do some research on the public to see if people around us also have knowledge about COPD.

Big Overview of the survey

Through the analysis of data collected from people of all ages and backgrounds, the survey reveals that there is a large group of people who know little about COPD, emphasizing the importance of introducing COPD to the public and, more importantly, investigating a method to diagnose in the early stages. Furthermore, advancements in diagnosis assist in addressing COPD sufferers' lack of awareness. It has also been demonstrated that COPD patients' lives are impacted by the symptoms, and they are not often detected at an early stage. More than 90% of respondents in the study agreed that HS-China should develop portable detecting equipment.

Interview: Doctor (We went to professionals for COPD treatment for help, trying to identify the key problem in COPD diagnosing.)

Overview: We organized an interview in April 2023 with Dr. Lipschik (Dr.L), a pulmonologist at the University of Pennsylvania, to gain a better understanding of how we should approach the COPD situation in China through the lens of an experienced foreign pulmonary doctor.

Dr. Lipschik (Dr.L) is a pulmonologist working at the University of Pennsylvania. To cope with COPD, other nations such as America are implementing shared solutions, using his own experience in a veteran's hospital that is similar to rural settings in China due to the lack of knowledge of COPD. We then highlighted how COPD may not be a disease unique to China, but may afflict developing countries. However, we did reconstruct China's centralized healthcare system with just hospitals and no family physicians, giving people less motivation to see a doctor if they have COPD. However, he also remarked that qualified doctors in hospitals such as Upenn would definitely make quick diagnostics of a patient’s lung conditions and whether they have COPD. This statement brought us to reality as Dr.L suggested that healthcare providers in rural areas might also need to raise their awareness of COPD or receive better equipment for diagnostics.

Dr.L exposed three important key points that were highly useful to us:

• Education might not only be needed for the people in the cities but also in rural areas.
• There should be an emphasis on educating patients, non-patients but also healthcare providers.
• Medicine in highly impoverished areas is still far from developed and there might not be enough financial support for rural areas to receive adequate machines to test for COPD. The situation might be specific to China and other developing countries as the medical infrastructures of larger hospitals would allow the diagnostics of COPD to be an easier process.

Conclusion: We learned a lot throughout the interview with Dr. L. A wide education of COPD is unquestionably required, as is more specialized COPD diagnosing equipment.

See the interview here

Interview: Pharmaceutical company (We went to professionals in the pharmaceutical field, trying to get some inspiration.)

Overview: We sought out several medical professionals from the world's top two global pharmaceutical corporations for ideas on how to enhance the area of COPD care through the perspectives of medicine organizers.

On May 6th, our team interviewed medical experts from the world's top 2 multinational pharmaceutical companies to discuss the diagnosis and treatment of COPD. From the interview, we learned that:

1. Early screening, diagnosis, and treatment of COPD are very crucial. If not diagnosed and treated in time, the patient will enter this progress, and their quality of life will drastically decline. COPD is usually comorbid with other diseases like hypertension, diabetes, etc. Early screening can help improve the patient's overall quality of life and health, thereby building confidence.
2. COPD cannot be cured, but data suggest that an early diagnosis can prevent patients from quickly progressing into the disease, mitigating severe impacts on their quality of life. Since a cure is currently challenging to achieve, early detection is relatively important. Subsequently, standardized medication is also crucial.
3. If doctors are not aware of COPD, misdiagnosing it as bronchitis or other diseases can greatly affect the treatment of the disease. Currently, worldwide, substantial funds and manpower are invested in: first, training primary care doctors in the knowledge and diagnostic levels of COPD; second, educating patients; third, screening high-risk patients and referring them to suitable hospitals; finally, patient record management and medication management.
4. Regarding effective measures in the prevention and treatment stage of COPD and the most effective treatment methods after early screening and diagnosis:
• Prevention(vaccines)
• Promotion (of education)
• Diagnosis(early diagnosis is especially important)
• Control(use medicines to yield the progression)
• Health(Rehabilitation through sports, food, etc.)
5. One of the recommendations on the field that your team may primarily concentrate on to help with COPD treatment is to perform new ways of early diagnosis. For example, screenings, particularly early screenings, is a good method for COPD but require careful evaluation of practicality and cost. In addition, emphasis must be paid to patient treatment following diagnosis, particularly standardized medication.

Through the interview with the pharmaceutical company, we have gained a clearer understanding of the current screening and treatment of COPD. We finally decided to focus our project on finding an efficient and cheap way to perform COPD early detection.At the same time, as our project moved towards industrialization, the experts not only encouraged us but also provided us with many suggestions. These have inspired the design of our subsequent hardware and software.

About Early Detection---Our Discovery (We read plenty of lab papers, and finally chose the miRNA biomarker approach; here is why.)

OVERVIEW:We fully utilized the information we gained from data investigation, public research, and two interviews, and finally set our ambition on creating a one-pot portable device for early detection of COPD.

As you may have already noticed, we split this part into four minor parts, for the purpose which you may not have guessed, to represent four stages of COPD: mild, moderate, severe, and very severe. While hundreds of millions of individuals worldwide suffer from COPD, we, a group of dedicated high school students, are striving to do our best to accomplish progress, with the goal of perpetually suppressing the illness stage. One more step we make, one more step COPD retreat.

I-Very Severe

We held multiple meetings to discuss the scope of our project. Early concepts include rehabilitation equipment and a machine to determine the stage of COPD. However, rather than attempting to alleviate the aggravated condition, why not identify people with COPD early, protecting the health of more people from the start? This notion stood out the most to us all in terms of our desire to deliver greater happiness to all while also paving the way for all lung illness early detection devices.

This is a challenge for all of us because the only approaches to diagnose COPD are the same as those used to identify pneumonia throughout the world. But one that, if successful, will benefit not only the COPD sector but also with the detection of other respiratory diseases. This technology will benefit many individuals all over the world, as well as companies and scholars.

II-Severe

From where to start? We first went to several common diagnoses of COPD to find weaknesses.

1.Spirometry:

Theory: By comparing both the flow and volume of lung function on the graph automatically drawn by the spirometer to determine whether the patient has a pulmonary malfunction.

Operation:Performed pre and post bronchodilator admission to determine whether airflow limitation is present, partial or fully reversible. The patient takes a deep breath and then breathes out for five to six seconds.

Weakness: Clinically meaningful results rely heavily on patient participation and effort and must be repeated at least three times to assure repeatability, with a recommended limit of 10 tries. Because an effort output of more than 100% is not achievable with varying rates of effort, the results can only be underestimated.

2.RT-PCR

Theory: a nuclear-derived method for detecting the presence of specific genetic material in any pathogen, including a virus.

Operation: Patients will have a nasopharyngeal swab or a pharyngeal swab taken, which will take them four to five hours to wait for the result.

Weakness: It is precise, yet expensive, slow, and has a high threshold. To complete the testing procedure, RT-PCR must be performed in a sophisticated laboratory setting, which is difficult to expand, particularly in developing countries and rural regions. Operators must be particularly trained to perform the test, which can not meet the huge demand brought on by an outbreak's abundance of samples.

III-Moderate

We've concluded from existing diagnosing methods, that the product we make should reach the following standards:

• There is no patient threshold. Patient participation has little influence on diagnostic efficacy, and there is no requirement for repeat for accuracy.
• There is no minimum level of doctoral training. The test requires no particular training to do.
• There is no environmental boundary. The tests must be performed not just in labs, but also in other locations, and the equipment must be portable.
• Quick. All testing and analysis operations may be solved in one pot, saving time.
• Cheap. Rural communities can thus benefit from efficient and broad well-being.

IV-Mild

Our CD-Box (COPD Detection Box) has arrived, thanks to the assistance of software, hardware, and lab support!

As the first edition of our product, it still has to be improved, and we'll have additional discussions with COPD patients, healthcare professionals, and pharmaceutical firms in the future to get more ideas. - Nonetheless, we are confident in CD-Box and our ability to make a difference in society.