The PneumaCare and HKL team.

A Cambridge company’s PneumaScan respiratory assessment device is being used in one of the largest hospitals in Asia.

The innovative equipment has been installed at the Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL) in Malaysia.

“Nearly 10 per cent of our admissions – that is 11,000 patients a year – are solely related to respiratory disease,” said Dr Jeyaindran Sinnadurai, head of the department of general medicine at HKL.

“Many of those could be helped by this device. We also intend to use it to further our research into patient care.”

PneumaScan uses light to measure and monitor how deeply and how quickly a patient is breathing, and what muscle groups are being used.

It achieves the same results as the traditional spirometer but has several advantages – the crucial one being that no physical contact is necessary.

“Operating in Malaysia gives us the opportunity to explore the instrument’s performance on a wide range of ethnicities and in different environments,” said Dr Ward Hills, chief executive of PneumaCare, which is based at St John’s Innovation Centre.

“For example, we hope to learn how comparable are results of lung capacities between ethnic groups to standard expected results.

“We are anticipating significant new data in the areas of cardiothoracic, respiratory medicine and general pulmonary function testing.”

Discussions are taking place with other healthcare institutions in Malaysia – including the Malaysia Institute of Respiratory Medicine in Kuala Lumpur – on patient care and research collaborations, as well as multi-centre trials and research projects.