Doha: Qatar Research, Development, and Innovation (QRDI) Council, in partnership with Sidra Medicine, has announced the launch of a new healthcare collaboration under its flagship Qatar Open Innovation (QOI) programme. 

Sidra Medicine, a specialist women’s and children’s hospital in Qatar, and the QRDI Council will use the QOI platform to develop a device to detect the severity of asthma attacks in children and help guide treatment.

Prof. Khalid Al Ansari, Chair of Emergency Medicine at Sidra Medicine said, “Asthma is a very prevalent disease in children across the world, and every year our Emergency Department sees thousands of children coming in with acute asthma attacks. We are hoping that the QOI programme will make our concept into reality by developing a device that can help with both fast assessment as well as guide the treatment approach. We are aiming for our innovation to result in an easy-to-use device that can be used at home by parents as well as by healthcare providers.”