High-tech disease detection mask designed by Caltech

A team of researchers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), led by Wei Gao, has developed a high-tech mask that can monitor breathing in real-time and detect signs of various diseases. This mask, designated as EBCare, analyses the chemical composition of exhaled breath, which could prove useful for monitoring conditions such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and post-coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infections. The use of passive cooling technology to condense exhaled breath into a liquid for chemical analysis could significantly aid in detecting blood alcohol content and monitoring kidney disease. Such a mask could be extremely valuable in precision medicine, providing a wide array of applications. The economic accessibility of the mask is one of its strengths. The production cost of the EBCare mask is estimated to be around one dollar per unit.