Breathe Better – BREATHE Hackathon 2015

In the 36 hours of the Breathe Hackathon, we were challenged to come up with a product and business idea that aims to solve one of the many problems faced by COPD (Chronic Obstructive Respiratory Disease) and its sufferers.

After looking at patient profiles from the British Lung Foundation, we decided to target the at risk demographic of developing COPD, 50-60 year old smokers from a working class background who may live in a city.

We wanted to create an ultra low-cost, low tech product that would hope to raise awareness of COPD itself, driven by the fact that an estimated 2 million people from the UK go undiagnosed every year, causing significant cost to the NHS¹.

Our final product, ’Breathe Better’, was a breathing awareness campaign which included a mail-home breathing awareness kit, targeted at known smokers. It consisted of the Puff-o-meter and a quick questionnaire to send to your GP.