UK-based charity Keep Me Breathing (KMB) has unveiled VENTO, a breakthrough non-invasive wearable CO2 monitor that it says marks a major step forward in respiratory technology for people born with Congenital Central Hypoventilation Syndrome (CCHS) and other rare breathing disorders.
KMB says that VENTO is over 90% lighter and 20 times smaller than existing hospital grade CO2 monitors. It provides continuous, real time CO2 trends without wires or bulky equipment.
“VENTO proves that accurate, responsive CO2 monitoring can exist outside the hospital,” says James Oakley, Founder and CEO of Keep Me Breathing. “For patients with CCHS, this means more freedom. It’s the foundation of a complete closed-loop system where detection, data and stimulation work together to support breathing automatically.”
VENTO is patent pending and the result of hundreds of feasibility tests led by KMB’s engineering and clinical partners. According to KMB, the device has already attracted interest from respiratory specialists, med-tech innovators, and performance-science researchers exploring wider use in sports physiology and critical care.
“This technology sits at the intersection of respiratory medicine and precision engineering,” says Andrew Pacey, Research & Innovation Manager at Keep Me Breathing. “We aim to turn hospital grade bedside units the size of a lunchbox, into wearable devices like an everyday training device or smartwatch.”
VENTO forms the first phase in KMB’s three-stage roadmap to create a fully adaptive Breathing Pacemaker system capable of detecting, interpreting, and correcting under-breathing in real time.
Phase One, which is now complete, was to develop and validate VENTO, the lightweight wearable CO₂ monitor capable of communicating to adjust an external stimulation system if required.
Phase Two, which KMB says is now underway, is to build an intelligent alert and data system connecting patients, carers, and clinicians through continuous monitoring and live feedback.
The planned Phase Three is to Create an implantable stimulation device that links directly with VENTO data to regulate breathing automatically.
