ERS 2026: Contactless monitoring enables objective, continuous assessment of nocturnal cough without patient burden, with cough associated with worsening daily asthma symptoms

• New data from Leiden University Medical Centre show that higher rates of nocturnal cough measured passively by Albus Home, without patients having to wear or do anything, are associated with worse asthma symptoms reported by patients up to three days after¹
• Patients were monitored for a median of 335 out of 365 nights, demonstrating a level of sustained, objective cough monitoring that has not previously been practicalwithout patient burden.
• This objective, high-frequency, overnight data could provide a new window into asthma, complementing intermittent assessments and patient-reported outcomes to give a more complete picture of disease activity and treatment response in clinical trials

Oxford, UK; September 14, 2026. Albus Health today announced new data from Leiden University Medical Centre showing that nocturnal cough, measured passively at home by Albus Home, was associated with worsening daily patient-reported asthma symptoms.

The findings, presented at the European Respiratory Society (ERS) Congress 2026, open the possibility of using objective, high-frequency nighttime monitoring to measure respiratory outcomes continuously and at scale over extended periods, without asking patients to wear a device. This could help overcome a key challenge associated with long-term patient-reported monitoring in clinical trials, the difficulty of collecting consistent, accurate nighttime symptom data when patients must remember and record experiences that are often missed or forgotten.

The study included Dutch adults with severe, uncontrolled asthma who returned home from pulmonary rehabilitation in Davos, Switzerland. They used Albus Home at their bedside to passively monitor nocturnal cough for up to 12 months, while daily asthma severity was self-reported through an eHealth app. Among the first 13 out of 20 included, participants completed a median of 9.5 hours monitoring per night for a median of 335 nights out of 365 – representing near-continuous adherence to overnight monitoring. Missing data were almost always explained by the participant not being home, e.g. on holidays. The device was feasible and well-tolerated by patients.

Higher nocturnal cough rates were associated with worse daily asthma symptom scores: for every 5-fold increase in cough rate, the odds of a worse symptom score on the following day were more than 1.5 times as high (OR 1.55, 95% CI 1.40-1.72; p<0.001). This association persisted over the following two days (OR lead day 2: 1.49, 95% CI 1.34-1.65; OR lead day 3: 1.43 95% CI 1.28-1.58). Notably, individual cough patterns varied between participants, suggesting that nocturnal cough may provide an early signal of worsening asthma symptoms in a subset of patients with severe asthma. Identifying the patients who may benefit most from this signal will be an important next step.

“Nocturnal symptoms are an important and burdensome feature of asthma and can be associated with poor disease control, yet they are difficult to monitor continuously and reliably when patients have to consistently record and recall their experiences over long periods,” said Fleur Meulmeester, lead study author, Leiden University Medical Centre. “Showing that objective nocturnal cough data, generated passively without the patient having to do or wear anything, correlates with patient-reported symptoms may help overcome this hurdle and demonstrates the potential of passive monitoring to provide valuable, objective insights into asthma management,” she said.

The study used the first-generation Albus Home platform, which uses contactless sensing to capture clinical-grade nighttime data without patients having to wear a device. The new generation of Albus Home captures a broader range of physiological and environmental measures, including heart rate, sleep, inhalation/exhalation duration and indoor environmental parameters, providing deeper insights into the physiology and patient experience of living with the disease.

“We always knew that substantial disease activity, symptom burden and treatment response unfold outside the clinic and only fragments of it are measured by traditional assessments” said Mikesh Udani, Co-Founder & CEO, Albus Health. “This data from Leiden University Medical Centre shows that passive technologies can now capture this reliably. This creates an opportunity to collect richer evidence while reducing, rather than increasing, the burden on patients.”

The Leiden findings add to Albus Health’s growing body of clinical evidence in respiratory disease. Albus Home is already being used by multiple top 10 pharmaceutical companies across North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. The company has a global operational footprint, with Albus Home being available in 50 countries worldwide.

About Albus Health

Albus Health is an Oxford-spinout health technology company pioneering fully contactless, bedside monitoring systems that capture continuous nocturnal health data. Its flagship product, Albus Home, uses a combination of advanced sensors and AI algorithms to monitor cough, vital signs, sleep parameters, and environmental factors, enabling high‑quality data collection for clinical trials, real‑world evidence programmes, and long‑term disease management.

Albus Health partners with leading pharmaceutical companies, academic institutions and patient advocacy groups to advance research and improve outcomes for people living with chronic and rare conditions.

Learn more at: www.albushealth.com

For more information contact:

Jo.shorthouse@59north.bio

References

1. 1. Meulmeester FL et al. Nocturnal Cough is associated with Worsening of Asthma Symptoms: a Pilot Study with the Albus Home Contactless Sleep Monitoring Device. European Respiratory Society (ERS) Congress 2026.