ResMed has unveiled the newest addition to its growing COPD portfolio: the LifeChoice Activox 4L portable oxygen concentrator from Inova Labs, which ResMed acquired in early 2016.

Highly portable, with class-leading battery autonomy, LifeChoice Activox 4L is less intrusive than traditional oxygen delivery formats, according to the company. It can help COPD patients who are still mobile to overcome the constraints that options such as tanks and Liquid O2 place on their day-to-day activities. Specially designed for patient comfort, this new solution also allows patients to benefit from smoother oxygen delivery. The product addition means ResMed’s COPD offerings now include portable oxygen therapy, remote monitoring technology and home NIV.

The release of the LifeChoice Activox 4L comes as ResMed welcomed positive results from the Home Oxygen Therapy – Home Mechanical Ventilation (HOT-HMV) study, presented at ERS 2016, which found the addition of home NIV to home oxygen therapy improves admission-free survival in hypercapnic COPD patients (those with high levels of carbon dioxide in the blood) following a life-threatening exacerbation of COPD requiring acute NIV.

This includes an increase in patients’ median (hospital) admission-free survival from 1.4 months in the group receiving HOT only, to 4.3 months in the group receiving HOT plus home NIV, with an adjusted hazard ratio of 0.49 (0.31-0.77); p=0.002.

“These results build on and add further weight to existing evidence supporting the broader use of home NIV in patients living with COPD, whilst also underlining the accepted benefits of home NIV in terms of reducing hospital admissions and improving patient outcomes,” said Holger Woehrle, ResMed’s Vice President of Clinical Research and Medical Director of EMEA & APAC. “We hope these results will have a positive impact on current practice and encourage more healthcare professionals to consider the role of home NIV in managing their COPD patients.”

Previous studies also confirm that home NIV can successfully reduce mortality and exacerbation-related hospitalizations and improve patients’ quality of life.

ResMed’s at-home COPD offering includes three series of home NIV products, Lumis, Stellar and Astral, which can be used by COPD patients at different stages of their disease. These solutions ensure pulmonologists can efficiently meet the unique and ever-changing needs of their COPD patients whilst also optimising healthcare professionals’ time and resources.

ResMed home NIV solutions are also connected to AirView, ResMed’s cloud-based patient management system, which ensures healthcare professionals can remotely identify patients in need of attention, make informed treatment decisions and deliver timely interventions. In addition to helping physicians better manage COPD patients on home NIV, AirView also enables home care providers to optimise business efficiencies and allows them to focus existing resources on high-value activities. Resmed’s cloud-connected ventilators provide peace of mind to patients and their families and help improve their overall experience living with COPD.