A young patient has her breathing monitored using the PneumaScan technology.

AN invention by a doctor at Cambridge’s Addenbrooke’s Hospital has won two top prizes in a Dragons’ Den-style medical awards competition.

The PneumaScan is the brainchild of Dr Richard Iles, consultant respiratory paediatrician at the Cambridge hospital, and monitors a patient’s breathing without any contact with their body.

At the Medical Futures Innovation Awards ceremony held in London on Monday, the PneumaScan came first in the respiratory section and was named the overall best business proposition of all the winners.

Dr Iles invention came about as traditional spirometry equipment - which measures the flow of air in and out of the mouth - cannot be used by many patients including premature babies, young children and transplant patients without the aid of more invasive procedures such as placing a tube in their airway.

So together with Cambridge University’s engineering department and PneumaCare Ltd in Duxford, Dr Iles came up with a painless solution.

The PneumaScan uses light instead of physical contact and sees the patient lying, sitting and standing and a small video projector cast a checkerboard pattern onto their chest and abdomen.

As they breathe in and out their chest rises and falls and the projected pattern changes shape.

Two cameras, located either side of the projector, record the changing images and feed them into a computer where they are used to create a 3D reconstruction of the chest.

Dr Iles said: “Carrying out lung function tests on some patients is very challenging.

“If the patient doesn’t understand what they need to do – or if they don’t want to do it – then we don’t get a useful result.

“This non-invasive technology has great potential for a range of specialities, including anaesthetics and the emergency department.

“But it will be particularly valuable in the clinic for patients under the age of six with problems like cystic fibrosis and asthma.

“In addition, many adult lung conditions like COPD may begin in early childhood – so if PneumaScan makes it possible for us to identify them earlier, we will be able to start treatment earlier.

“You could use it anywhere from alongside a cot to the back of an ambulance.

“It could be used for home monitoring to help keep patients out of hospital – or even for mass screening in schools or in the workplace.”

Clinical trials for the PneumaScan are about to begin at Addenbrooke’s.

The Medical Futures Awards are run on a not-for-profit basis to help turn ideas into solutions that improve the health of patients and provide cost-saving benefits.

The programme started in 2001 and past winners have secured more than £100 million in funding.