Wearables get serious with artificial lung in the works

HUFFING AND PUFFING: The race is on to improve the quality of life for those who suffer from lung disease.

In the future, even respiratory failure and cardiopulmonary collapse might not necessarily keep sufferers hospitalised in the long term as the University of Maryland (UM) Ventures joins forces with Breethe, Inc to create the first portable artificial lung that users can don at home. 

The wearable artificial lung would enable patients to leave the hospital and participate in at least some of their favourite activities, says Dr Bartley Griffith, executive director of the University of Maryland Medical Center/School of Medicine Programme in Lung Healing and the Thomas E. and Alice Marie Hales Distinguished Professor in Transplant Surgery at the School of Medicine.