Trach Sense
A connected app for tracheostomy care at home
Continuous CO₂ monitoring for vent-independent tracheostomy patients.
Trach Sense is a companion app that connects with the Trach Sense device to continuously monitor tracheostomy tube status. When a potential complication is detected, caregivers receive an immediate alert with visual, haptic and audio cues to guide their response.
It is built for children who are ventilator independent during the day and mobile, living at home or in long-term care. The intent is to bring hospital-level vigilance to a child who is no longer in hospital.
Below, the companion app built twice in different tools with different designs. The app design on the left is for nurses only. On the right choose between clinician or parent view. Tap through sign-in, the dashboard, a patient’s chart, an alert, and the how-to guides.
Keeping an eye on your child’s breathing every moment of the day.
Accidental decannulation and tube blockages are among the leading causes of tracheostomy-related emergencies, especially in children who cannot communicate distress.
These events often happen at home, without real-time monitoring, leaving caregivers to rely on visual checks alone.
Brain damage can begin within seconds of a blocked airway. Yet there is no current solution that gives an early warning.
Design always starts with listening.
Conversations with parents raising a child with a tracheostomy at home, and with the nurses who support them in hospital, covered what a frightening night actually feels like, when an alarm earns trust and when it stops being believed, and where home and hospital see the same child differently.
Two priorities fell out of that work: the app has to earn trust the way a good nurse does, and an alert has to say why it fired, not merely that it did.
Equitable Care for Children With a Tracheostomy: Addressing Challenges and Seeking Systemic Solutions
Barriers to insurance coverage, devices, supplies and home nursing, read as a health-equity problem.
Read the publication →“100 Things I Wish Someone Would Have Told Me”: Everyday Challenges Parents Face While Caring for Their Children With a Tracheostomy
Eleven interviews with primary caregivers: insufficient support, ineffective training, inadequate coverage.
Read the publication →Tracheostomy Tube Monitoring Accessory to Detect Accidental Decannulation and Obstruction Emergencies in Ventilator-Independent Pediatric Patients
A custom CO₂ attachment on a pediatric breathing model: each emergency has its own waveform signature.
Read the publication →
An IRB-approved pilot, fall 2026
Approved by the IRB in 2026, the pilot study puts Trach Sense against the gold standard for detecting an airway event, a ventilator, at Children’s National Hospital.
The technology is patent pending. For more information, contact the CNH Innovation Ventures Licensing Office.
Patent pending: Tracheostomy Tube Complication Monitoring Accessory and Uses Thereof (2023-008-02, 63654838 filed 5/31/2024; 19/223,580 filed 5/30/2025)
The thread
