Therapists, patients, and caregivers understand following through with daily therapies can be difficult. Failing to follow prescribed treatments has consequences for patients and entire healthcare systems. Thankfully, therapy improvements, such as ease of use and comfort, can help patients stick with prescribed regimens.
Let’s talk through three ways a unique therapy for airway clearance helps patients comply with treatment regimens and avoid the vicious cycle of lung infections.
Lung infections can lead to serious health complications
Clearing airways of mucus can be difficult for patients with a variety of health problems, from chronic conditions like Muscular Dystrophy to critical conditions like pneumonia or stroke.
When mucus builds up in a patient’s airways, it can enable bacteria to grow, leading to infections that damage the airways. Damaged airways prevent patients from taking full breaths, which means more mucus, inflammation, and damage (Figure 1). The result is serious health complications, such as chronic respiratory failure.
Clearing airways helps patients breathe
Airway clearance techniques (ACTs) can halt the cycle of lung infections by loosening mucus from a patient’s airways so they can breathe more easily.
Oscillating lung expansion (OLE) is a type of ACT that combines lung expansion with high frequency oscillations and aerosol to thin and loosen excessive mucus trapped in a patient’s lungs. OLE can help treat or prevent atelectasis, reduce hypercapnia, improve oxygenation, decrease hospital stays, and reduce pulmonary complications.[i]
ABM Respiratory Care’s BiWaze® Clear, is the latest innovation in OLE therapy. BiWaze Clear’s respiratory therapy is efficient and adaptable, with an intuitive design that can be customized to meet each patient’s individual needs, ensuring maximum comfort and ease of use.
How BiWaze Clear improves adherence
Reason #1: Adaptability
Patients are more likely to adhere to therapies that adapt to their needs. BiWaze Clear’s unique dual air path control design uses advanced programming to control a patient’s inhalation and exhalation, making therapy more comfortable. Each therapy phase can be programmed separately to personalize the pressure the patient experiences.
The BiWaze Clear system is lighter than competitors and includes a battery so that it can move with a patient. Patients can choose where they complete their therapy—from a favorite chair, in bed, or on the couch. Adaptive and mobile therapies help patients improve their quality of life and adhere to their treatment regimen.
Reason #2: Efficiency
Therapies that use time and space more efficiently can also help patients adhere to treatment. A typical BiWaze Clear therapy of alternating positive expiratory pressure and high frequency oscillation while delivering nebulization therapy only takes ten minutes compared with the thirty minutes of its competitors. Less time in therapy gives patients more time to enjoy other activities.
BiWaze Clear is also an efficient system with dual blowers and a closed breathing circuit. Unlike its competitors, BiWaze Clear is the only airway clearance system with two blowers to control the inhale and exhale path from within the control unit to the patient interface. This unique and innovative design allows the breathing circuit to be closed (no exhale ports/leaks), so the patient’s exhaled breath is filtered by the bacterial-viral filter before entering the room air. This helps caregivers breathe more easily, knowing they are not inhaling a patient’s exhaled air.
Another efficient feature is the Aerogen® Solo nebulizer used by the BiWaze Clear system. Aerogen is a known and trusted vibrating mesh nebulizer designed to be a closed nebulizer and more efficient than a jet nebulizer. More medication gets deep into a patient’s lungs, mobilizing stubborn secretions.
Reason #3: Intuitive
Patients are also more likely to stick with therapies that are easy to use. BiWaze Clear’s intuitive interface helps patients and caregivers easily navigate the system. For example, the touch screen allows for easy therapy setup and gives visual indications of therapy status. Tracking where a patient is in their therapy is simple and gives needed perspective. Respiratory therapists can lock the touch screen so patients or caregivers don’t alter the program settings.
BiWaze Clear’s simplified setup also makes it more intuitive for caregivers. Unlike competitors, BiWaze Clear doesn’t require pre-tests because it self-calibrates upon startup. Also, the Dual Lumen Breathing circuit requires minimal assembly.
Therapists can store up to ten therapy profiles for caregivers and patients to access at home. They can also customize names for each therapy to make it easier for users to understand what to use and when. Users can quickly select different prescriptions as needed.
Designed to help
BiWaze Clear’s adaptive, efficient, and intuitive design can help patients and their caregivers complete their daily therapy regimens and avoid serious health complications.
Learn more about the innovative BiWaze Clear system which helps clear airways by combining three respiratory therapies of positive expiratory pressure, high frequency oscillation and nebulization into an efficient, adaptable, and intuitive 10-minute therapy system.