Strategy for Enabling Clinical Confidence in Breath Analysis 

Authors: Farrow-Dunn FM (1)*, Worton DR (2), Hodnett M (3)

Affiliations: (1) Primary Gas Metrology, (2) Partnerships, The National Physical Laboratory, London, United Kingdom

View the Poster PDF

Abstract 

Breath analysis is a novel non-invasive diagnostic tool that has the potential to revolutionise the early detection of diseases, the monitoring of disease progression and personalised medicine both in and out of the clinical environment improving patient outcomes while reducing healthcare costs. However, there is a lack of understanding and commercially available solutions needed to achieve reproducible and reliable data within the breath analysis community. As a result, poor data comparability is currently limiting clinical confidence in data, inhibiting the translation of breath analysis research into routine clinical practice. Traceable and accurate quantitation are key to underpinning data comparability and data confidence. Traceability and accuracy are ensured through calibration using primary reference materials, developed and maintained by National Metrology Institutes like NPL, similar to what is already achieved in areas like air quality monitoring and fuel quality and trading. NPL has recently completed a project entitled Strategy for Enabling Clinical Confidence in Breath Analysis, funded by the Government Office of Technology Transfer Knowledge Asset Grant Fund (GOTT KAGF). This project engaged with academic and industrial stakeholders to conduct a review to better understand the current state of the art, common practices, challenges, and barriers that negatively impact data comparability and clinical confidence in the breath analysis community and explored opportunities where NPL could develop new reference materials or utilise other knowledge assets to provide tangible benefits. At the conclusion of the project an implementation strategy was developed based on the needs of the stakeholder community outlining the next steps and a plan to move the field forwards to improve data comparability and building clinician confidence in breath analysis, accelerating the uptake into routine clinical practice. This poster presents the findings from the stakeholder engagement, details of the implementation plan and the next steps NPL has taken to realise this plan.