Awichiu : Your question below was a good one - The following...

Awichiu : Your question below was a good one - The following reply is direct from Rob Phillips this afternoon:
QUESTION: One thing that I have tried to gauge, and which I haven't got an answer to, is regarding spironsonic. It appears to be a great tool with great relevance to COVID, remote monitoring and telehealth, but I still don't understand how it's different to the traditional spirometer. In another words, what is the competitive edge, and why would anyone choose to use spirosonic as opposed to the current iterations of spirometers? Hoping anyone with insight to help answer this question. Alternatively, does anyone have Rob's email address so I can ask this question directly to him?

ANSWER FROM ROB:
The answer to that is easy ...

Obstruction - Most spirometers use turbines or differential pressure sensors situated in the field of breath flow. This obstructs the flow thereby reducing the flow measured – it obstructs the outlet and doesn't measure natural capacity. Uscom uses a true flow system with ultrasound transmitted across the tube which causes no obstruction so is almost non resistance and allows a more physiologic measure and ideally suited for small children and patients with impaired respiratory flow.

Sensitivity -Digital ultrasound is a very accurate measure of flow ±2.5%, while turbines, thermopile and differential pressure measures are much less accurate.

Consumables – Each of the other methods require replacement turbines or sensor components which are expensive and short lived.

Calibration – Digital ultrasound requires annual at most calibration, while other methods with mechanical methods require daily calibration.

Disinfection – The simple hollow TrueFlow tube is simply washed and disinfected while the other methods have obstructions which are more difficult to disinfect.

Durability – SpiroSonic devices last 3-5 years, while other mechanical methods 6-18mths.

SpiroReporter – High fidelity PC based software for patient archiving, waveform analysis and reporting compatible with all SpiroSonic devices.

Rob attached two pictures - which I have tried to attach in the draft without much success - they may display when I post.