RespiBit

RespiBit is a Digital Health/MedTech company dealing with chronic and infectious respiratory diseases. RespiBit is currently based in Thessaloniki and was created by the co-founders Christodoulos Spagkakas and Aleck Alexopoulos, two Engineers with startup experience (ErgoSensePro and BAI). The RespiBit team is complemented by two Pulmonary Doctors, Panagiotis Chatziapostolou and Stavros Tryfon who are advisors and active supporters of RespiBit and especially the TBscan project.

RespiBit is developing two deep-tech products: AsthmaFit, an asthma management solution that can predict and prevent asthma attacks, and TBscan, a diagnostic device that can rapidly detect tuberculosis, TB, mycobacterium in the air helping Doctors detect TB faster and easier. The development of these deep tech products, AsthmaFit and TBscan, requires significant time and costs. As we are still largely self-funded, the decision was made to keep operating costs at an absolute minimum. For this reason, RespiBit was incorporated in October 2018 in Petrich, Bulgaria. RespiBit will likely be re-incorporated by the end of 2024 in a W EU nation. However an R&D section will be maintained in Thessaloniki, Greece.

The AsthmaFit solution is a system comprised of a wearable device, an App, and AI-based software providing the first solution for effective management of asthma. The AsthmaFit system provides an effective asthma management solution that can predict and prevent asthma attacks. The solution follows primarily a data-based approach including the data of individual symptom history, exposure history, and activity history. The AsthmaFit system provides the user a status, a historical review of exposure/symptom history, and a next-day risk analysis based on the planned activities of the user.

The first realization of TBscan will be as a breath analysis device for the detection of the TB mycobacterium, TBmb, in the exhaled breath of individuals. TBscan has completed a proof-of-concept validation experiment where a TBmb analogue dispersed in aerosol droplets (typical of those found in exhaled breath) dispersed in the air was detected at a sensitivity level that ensures detection of the actual TBmb in the exhaled breath of infected individuals. For the TBscan proof of concept study, RespiBit received a small grant from the Hellenic Chest Diseases Society, HCDS, which covered most of the expenses.[1] HCDS is supporting promotion activities for TBscan for example the recent Pulmonary Conference at Makedonia Pallas in May 2023.[2]

IDEAMAP is an environmental monitoring solution consisting of an air quality monitoring device attached to a drone. The system includes a novel solution for monitoring the local wind velocity and software that can generate a 7D representation of dispersed entities, i.e., location, concentration and flux. This type of detailed representation enables rapid determination of hot spots, transfer pathways, and even sources with clear application in defense, industries such as aerospace. IDEAMAP received a third-party fund in METASTARS 2023 for proof of principle and demo by the end of 2024. 

[1] https://hcds.gr/en/hcds-respifit-development-of-a-device-for-detecting-tuberculosis-mycobacterium/

[2] https://hcds.gr/6o-panellinio-synedrio-nosimaton-thorakos-thessaloniki-maios-2023-prosklisi/