Cystic Fibrosis

Home spirometry

The coronavirus pandemic has certainly changed the face of healthcare. Our clinic was temporarily closed early in the pandemic. We started doing telephone visits and then video visits, then we reopened our clinic and are taking special safety precautions to make sure that coming to clinic is a safe experience. Watch a video about our safety precautions or learn more here.

In-person visits are necessary when you need a physical exam, blood work and chest x-rays. However, we plan to continue to offer high quality care via video visits. An important part of your care is throat swab cultures and pulmonary function testing (spirometry). For home spirometry, we will provide the Mir Spirobank Smart spirometer for all pediatric patients who are over 6 years of age.

Resources

Other Things to Know about Using the Spirometer at Home

  1. Sharing Your Progress

    • Slide 7 of the user guide is labeled as Consent to share your progress. ZephyRx has an agreement with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CFF) to transfer the spirometry results to the CFF. (This only applies to patients who have given consent to be in the CF Patient Registry). The data is transferred in a HIPAA-compliant manner.

    • In the ZephyRx app on the Share progress screen, please complete all the fields.

    • For healthcare providers, scroll down to University of Wisconsin (pediatric) for pediatric patients, and University of Wisconsin (adult) for adult patients. Please note that although the spirometry results go to the CFF, we do not see the raw values; we are only seeing the percent predicted values. Thus, we ask that you follow the instructions we have provided for how to navigate to the results screen, take a screen shot, and send to us as an attachment to a MyChart message.

  2. Tips on Performing Spirometry

    • A bell will ring at the 6-second time point of the spirometry attempt. The spirometer will not say that the maneuver is completed until 15 seconds. It is very challenging to blow for a full 15 seconds. We would prefer at least 6 seconds of exhalation, as this is the minimum recommended by the American Thoracic Society. If the person cannot blow until 15 seconds, that is acceptable.

    • A minimum of 3 maneuvers are required. The spirometer will notify you when there are enough maneuvers with reproducibility of FVC and FEV1, up to a maximum of 8 maneuvers.

    • There is a link to "Breathing Exercises" on the home screen. There are games that younger children can play in order to practice blowing out forcefully and for a long period of time. Unlike the games that are available in the pulmonary function lab in which numbers are generated, the games in the ZephyRx app are for practice only. Spirometry values are not generated.

If you have any questions about the home spirometer, please call the adult or pediatric clinic or send a MyChart message.