A SOUTHAMPTON business has won a £960,000 contract to help fight lung disease.

HealthQuest Solutions, based at the University of Southampton Science Park, was awarded the contract by the Small Business Research Initiative to continue its work on Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).

The condition causes breathing problems and killed more than three million people worldwide in 2012.

HealthQuest has developed “myCOPD” – a selfmanagement programme that can reduce dependency on prescriptions which it claims could save the NHS millions of pounds over the coming year.

The programme aims to improve patients’ knowledge of their symptoms and ability to manage them through online education videos around inhaler techniques, relaxation skills and exercise tips that will help breathing.

The contract follows a testing phase in which 36 patients tried out myCOPD over six months.

And the trial saw almost all patients go from not knowing correct inhaler procedure to 98 per cent knowing the right things to do.

Mal North, lead nurse of HealthQuest Solutions, said: “We’re thrilled to have been awarded this contract, which will be used to recruit more staff, market our products more widely and support the recruitment of further patients for two new studies.

“This contract will make a huge difference to the services that we can provide to clinical commissioning groups across the country, meaning bigger savings for the NHS, and better outcomes for patients.”