For millions of families managing pediatric asthma, the period between clinic visits is often a precarious waiting game. Parents are tasked with monitoring subtle changes in their children’s breathing—listening for a faint wheeze or noticing a slight increase in respiratory effort—and deciding whether a symptom warrants a trip to the emergency room or a change in medication. This reliance on subjective caregiver reports has long been a challenge in pediatric pulmonology.
To bridge this gap, Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children’s has launched a program where Cedars-Sinai deploys AeviceMD to monitor pediatric asthma, utilizing a wearable stethoscope to provide clinicians with real-time, remote visibility into a child’s lung health. By shifting from periodic snapshots of health to continuous or on-demand monitoring, the initiative aims to catch respiratory distress before it escalates into a crisis.
Asthma remains one of the most prevalent chronic pediatric diseases in the United States, affecting approximately 4.5 million children. While the condition is manageable, the volatility of “reactive airway” issues means that a child’s status can shift rapidly, often overnight, making traditional office-based assessments insufficient for comprehensive long-term management.
Closing the Gap in Respiratory Monitoring
Traditionally, pediatric asthma management has relied on two primary data sources: periodic physical exams and caregiver reports of symptoms like chest congestion or rapid breathing. However, these reports can be unreliable, as parents may not always recognize the early acoustic signatures of worsening airway obstruction, or children may be unable to articulate their distress.
The AeviceMD device addresses this by bringing the stethoscope into the home. The wearable is roughly the size of a half-dollar coin and is designed for children aged 3 and older. Patients wear the device on their chest for up to 10 hours a day, allowing parents to record lung sounds and securely share those recordings with their medical team.
“I saw strong potential in this technology to support how we monitor and manage children with reactive airway issues like asthma outside of the clinical setting,” said Irina Dralyuk, a pediatric pulmonologist at Guerin Children’s. “Being able to assess respiratory symptoms in real time, especially overnight, provides valuable information that can guide earlier intervention and help prevent more serious breathing complications.”
By analyzing these recordings, clinicians can build a more nuanced picture of disease progression. This data allows doctors to track how symptoms evolve in response to specific treatment plans and evaluate the effectiveness of medication use with objective acoustic evidence rather than anecdotal reports.
Comparing Traditional vs. Remote Asthma Monitoring
| Feature | Traditional Monitoring | AeviceMD Remote Monitoring |
|---|---|---|
| Data Collection | Periodic clinic visits | Continuous or on-demand home recording |
| Symptom Detection | Caregiver report/Physical exam | Real-time acoustic lung sound analysis |
| Intervention Timing | Reactive (after symptoms peak) | Proactive (early detection of distress) |
| Clinical Insight | Snapshot of current state | Longitudinal view of disease progression |
Reducing Hospitalizations and Steroid Reliance
The primary clinical objective of the program is to reduce the frequency of asthma exacerbations—acute episodes where symptoms worsen significantly. When these exacerbations are caught late, the result is often an emergency department visit and the administration of systemic steroids to open the airways. While effective, systemic steroids can have significant side effects when used frequently in developing children.
By identifying the early signs of respiratory distress, healthcare providers can adjust medications or provide interventions earlier, potentially avoiding the need for high-dose steroids and hospital admissions. “What we’re trying to do is prevent exacerbations, reduce hospitalizations and emergency department visits, and limit the need for interventions such as systemic steroid use to control asthma symptoms,” Dralyuk said.
This approach transforms the patient-provider relationship from a series of isolated appointments into a continuous loop of care. The ability to monitor lung sounds remotely means that a physician can detect a decline in respiratory function and contact the family to adjust a treatment plan before the child ever experiences a full-blown attack.
A Multiyear Path to FDA Clearance
The deployment at Cedars-Sinai is the result of a strategic partnership that began in 2022 between the healthcare system and Aevice Health, a digital health company based in Singapore. The collaboration was designed to ensure that the technology was not just technically viable, but clinically useful in a real-world pediatric setting.
Physicians at Guerin Children’s provided critical clinical input throughout the development process, which included a pilot program to evaluate the device’s effectiveness in tracking pediatric lung sounds. This rigorous collaborative process led to the device receiving FDA clearance in 2023.
“We built AeviceMD to make this kind of continuous symptom visibility possible,” said Adrian Ang, CEO of Aevice Health. “Having our technology deployed at a large, world-class healthcare system like Cedars-Sinai validates our belief that there is a critical, unmet patient need.”
Nirdesh K Gupta, PhD, managing partner of Cedars-Sinai Intellectual Property Company, emphasized that the project serves as a model for how academic medical centers can partner with tech innovators to accelerate the delivery of bedside care. “It’s an exciting example of how innovation can directly impact care and improve the way we manage chronic conditions like asthma,” Gupta said.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Patients should consult with their healthcare provider regarding the management of asthma and the use of remote monitoring devices.
As the program continues, Cedars-Sinai and Aevice Health will monitor the long-term impact of the wearable on patient outcomes and emergency room utilization rates. Further data from the deployment will likely inform how remote acoustic monitoring is integrated into standard pediatric asthma protocols across other health systems.
We invite you to share your thoughts on the role of wearable technology in pediatric care in the comments below.
