Our Device

In search of better drug delivery and healthier patients.

MD Turbo® is a breath-activated companion product for use with most commercially available inhalers. It helps ensure timely delivery of medication for patients with:

  • Asthma
  • COPD
  • Other respiratory disorders

MD Turbo® solves two longstanding problems with standard MDIs

  1. Patient inability to coordinate delivery of their medication with a breath. Medication delivery is automated and simple, because it is activated by inhalation. Breath activated delivery can lead to an increase in lung deposition from 7.2 to 20.8 percent (of dose) for patients with poor coordination. (1). An audible click confirms the delivery of the medication.
  2. Patient inability to determine amount of medication remaining in their inhaler. Doses are counted automatically.
    • Up to 25 percent of patients have reported trying to use an empty inhaler. (2)
    • Patients will be less likely to run out of medication unexpectedly.
    • Physicians and clinicians can confirm compliance.

Poor technique is surprisingly common with standard pMDIs

Though pressurized metered dose inhalers (pMDIs) have been around for a half-century, and are the most popular delivery system for inhaled medications, an alarming number of patients risk not achieving an effective level of benefit from their medications. 

  • 32 to 96 percent of patients use pMDIs improperly. 
    The most frequent error is the failure to coordinate actuation with inhalation, ie, hand-breathing coordination. (3)
  • 17 to 68 percent of patients using MDIs demonstrated a lack of coordination. (4, 5)
  • Depending on the population, MDIs are used improperly by 14 to 96 percent of patients. (6)

Poor coordination and other misuses of MDIs have health consequences

  • Significant (30 percent) loss of bronchodilation (7)
  • Delivery of only 7 percent of delivered dose (with poor coordination) compared to 23 percent (with good coordination) into the respiratory tract. (1).  When medication is delivered into the mouth, absorption can take hours 
  • Increased asthma instability (8)
  • Unexpectedly empty canisters can lead to 9-1-1 calls, 8 percent of the time in one survey (2)

References

  1. Newman SP, Weisz AW, Talaee N, Clarke SW. Improvement of drug delivery with a breath actuated pressurized aerosol for patients with poor inhaler technique. Thorax. 1991;46:712-716
  2. Sander N, Fusco-Walker SJ, Chipps B. MDIs: Can you count on them? Poster presented at the 61st Annual Meeting of the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology; November 7-12, 2003; New Orleans, LA.
  3. Rau, Joseph L, Practical problems with aerosol therapy in COPD, Respiratory Care 2006;51(2):158-172.
  4. Pederson S, Frost L, Arnfred T. Errors in inhalation technique and efficiency in inhaler use in asthmatic children. Allergy 1986; 41:118-124.
  5. van Beerendonk I, Mesters I, Muddle A, et al. Assessment of inhalation technique in outpatients with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease using a metered-dose inhaler or powder device. J Asthma 1998; 35:273-279.
  6. Hampson NB, Mueller MP. Reduction in patient timing errors using a breath-actuated metered dose inhaler, Chest 1994; 106:462-65.
  7. Lindgren S, Bake B, Larsson S, Clinical Consequences of inadequate inhalation technique in asthma therapy, Eur J Respir Dis. 1997 Feb;70(2):93-98
  8. Giraud V, Roche N. Misuse of corticosteroid metered-dose inhaler is associated with decreased asthma stability, Eur Resp J 2002; 19:246-251.
MD Turbo