More than 600,000 people in the UK are waiting for a formal COPD diagnosis, held up by a test method that has not fundamentally changed in over a century
Spirometry requires forceful exhalation, specialist training, and can eat up an hour per patient
The backlog is part of a larger picture: around 1.9 million people in the UK are living with COPD, and the condition costs the NHS roughly £1.9 billion annually
Cambridge-based TidalSense has raised $19 million to scale a faster alternative
The company’s N-Tidal Diagnose platform asks patients to breathe normally into a handheld device for 75 seconds
Its AI models analyze the resulting carbon dioxide waveform for signs of COPD, delivering results in under five minutes
Any healthcare professional can be trained in 10 minutes, and clinicians can test four to six patients per hour, a sharp contrast with spirometry’s roughly one per hour
New investor Cross-Border Impact Ventures led the round, joined by existing backers BGF, Airstream Capital and Foresight Group
Total funding now stands at $40 million, including $11 million in grants from Innovate UK, the National Institute for Health and Care Research, and Asthma and Lung UK
“We’re still diagnosing in the 21st century with a test invented in the 1800s, and one that needs specialist equipment and training most of the world doesn’t have access to,” said CEO Ameera Patel
“Lower-income and minority communities pay the price for that first.” N-Tidal Diagnose is the first non-spirometry AI diagnostic to earn a Class IIa CE mark under the EU Medical Device Regulation for COPD, awarded in March 2025
It launched in the NHS last September and has since been deployed across England, Wales and Scotland
The company plans to use the new capital to accelerate European commercialization, prepare for US market entry, and expand.
