I’m an NHS doctor and the founder of Pia (https://www.piahealth.co) which developed Lungy (https://www.lungy.app). Lungy is a mindful breathing app that uses the camera +/- microphone to respond to breathing, generating real-time visuals and tracking your breathing progress over the exercise. It’s initially a wellness app (for stress & anxiety), but we’re very close to having a medical device version ready for asthma & COPD - the two most common lung conditions.
It’s been one year since Lungy launched (here’s the original ShowHN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34534615) - I was delighted with the response. One year on, we have re-designed and rebuilt the whole interface, and added a real-time, 3D soft body solver which gives some really cool interactions like blobs / objects that expand and inflate as you breathe.
My background is as a junior surgical trainee and I started building Lungy in 2020 during the first COVID lockdown in London. During COVID, there were huge numbers of patients coming off ventilators and patients are often given breathing exercises on a worksheet and disposable plastic devices called incentive spirometers to encourage deep breathing. This is intended to prevent chest infections and strengthen breathing muscles that have weakened. I noticed often the incentive spirometer would sit by the bedside, whilst the patient would be on their phone – this was the spark that lead to Lungy!
Since making the first version we’ve made exercises fully customisable (you can dial in exact timings for each breath phase), added new breathing indicators, learning modules, e.g. self-care for anxiety symptoms, and lots of new visuals. The UI is now much nicer. The free version gives you access to a new breathing exercise each day, whilst premium ($14.99 per year, $39.99 unlimited) unlocks the full library of exercises.
Thanks for reading - would love to hear any feedback!
As a person who doesn't need this app but was curious, I bounced off the Terms of Service (et cetera) that "we have to read" (but it is understood that many (most?) of us don't). It seems like a cool idea, but I'm exhausted by all these walls and uninstalled without agreeing to the legalese. If I ever make something useful for other people's well-being I'll just give it away and ask that the distributors of the data pay for it, for the public good (there's an energy cost to everything). For that to work for enough creators, there has to be a different system in place, with health insurance decoupled from employment, and a way to stay alive without relying on guarding "intellectual property". Maybe I'm just living in dreamland today.
There are three typos in the first few paragraphs, each an instance of an extra space. That's not an exhaustive list, as I didn't read the whole document.
Thank you for making a thing and getting it this far into the hands of others. Perhaps I'll try it when I need it or when there's an open source version. Good luck with your project!
Hey, thanks for downloading and for the feedback! The Terms of Service is a tricky one - I know most people don't read it, but we did try to summarise the most important points, rather than just having a tiny link that will no one will click. Thanks for pointing out the typos.
On open source / free - I would love to be able to give access to the whole thing for free, but unfortunately it's just not sustainable. The free version is very good though, with unlimited use and learning modules. Even with a universal basic income + health insurance, there's no way to fund, grow and release a medical device without some kind of monetisation - and grant companies and investors would definitely expect some kind of business plan. I'm not sure there would be any benefit from open source in this case? It just means it wouldn't get to market as a medical device.
3 comments
[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 14.2 ms ] threadI’m an NHS doctor and the founder of Pia (https://www.piahealth.co) which developed Lungy (https://www.lungy.app). Lungy is a mindful breathing app that uses the camera +/- microphone to respond to breathing, generating real-time visuals and tracking your breathing progress over the exercise. It’s initially a wellness app (for stress & anxiety), but we’re very close to having a medical device version ready for asthma & COPD - the two most common lung conditions.
It’s been one year since Lungy launched (here’s the original ShowHN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34534615) - I was delighted with the response. One year on, we have re-designed and rebuilt the whole interface, and added a real-time, 3D soft body solver which gives some really cool interactions like blobs / objects that expand and inflate as you breathe.
My background is as a junior surgical trainee and I started building Lungy in 2020 during the first COVID lockdown in London. During COVID, there were huge numbers of patients coming off ventilators and patients are often given breathing exercises on a worksheet and disposable plastic devices called incentive spirometers to encourage deep breathing. This is intended to prevent chest infections and strengthen breathing muscles that have weakened. I noticed often the incentive spirometer would sit by the bedside, whilst the patient would be on their phone – this was the spark that lead to Lungy!
Since making the first version we’ve made exercises fully customisable (you can dial in exact timings for each breath phase), added new breathing indicators, learning modules, e.g. self-care for anxiety symptoms, and lots of new visuals. The UI is now much nicer. The free version gives you access to a new breathing exercise each day, whilst premium ($14.99 per year, $39.99 unlimited) unlocks the full library of exercises.
Thanks for reading - would love to hear any feedback!
Version 2.0 here: https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1545223887
There are three typos in the first few paragraphs, each an instance of an extra space. That's not an exhaustive list, as I didn't read the whole document.
Thank you for making a thing and getting it this far into the hands of others. Perhaps I'll try it when I need it or when there's an open source version. Good luck with your project!
On open source / free - I would love to be able to give access to the whole thing for free, but unfortunately it's just not sustainable. The free version is very good though, with unlimited use and learning modules. Even with a universal basic income + health insurance, there's no way to fund, grow and release a medical device without some kind of monetisation - and grant companies and investors would definitely expect some kind of business plan. I'm not sure there would be any benefit from open source in this case? It just means it wouldn't get to market as a medical device.