The Mutual Medical Research Awards jury, chaired by Dr. Pilar Tornos, has awarded two of this year's awards to two professionals from the Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR). On the one hand, Dr. Ana Diez Izquierdo, from the Growth and Development research group, has been awarded a 2020 Mutual Medical Grant for the work 'Determining the usefulness of the electronic nose as a tool in the monitoring and early detection of exacerbations in pediatric patients (4-18 years) with respiratory pathology. Pinocchio project', for its high quality and high application to medical practice, decisive factors when awarding the prizes.Dr. Oriol Roca Gas, from the Shock, Organic Dysfunction and Resuscitation research group, has been awarded a Second Prize Dr. Font for the work 'An index combining respiratory rate and oxygenation to predict outcome of nasal high-flow therapy', which was published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine scientific journal with an impact factor of 17,452.Pinocchio projectThe Pinocchio project is based on the evaluation of the pattern of volatile organic components in exhaled air and, in this way, to be able to determine olfactory traces in pediatric patients with respiratory and allergic pathologies, using a device called electronic nose. "The advantage of this technique is that it is a non-invasive test, which only requires collecting the air exhaled by the patient", explains Dr. Diez.This test has already shown great efficacy in the diagnosis of diseases in adult patients, and in the follow-up of patients with respiratory diseases, such as for early detection of asthma exacerbation or other respiratory infections. However, in the pediatric field, there are still few studies worldwide. For this reason, "being able to see the usefulness of the technique in children, and compare it with other tests that are routinely performed in the follow-up of patients with respiratory pathologies, would be extremely useful", adds the doctor.ROX index as a predictor of success or failure or high-flow oxygen therapyFor its part, the study carried out by Dr. Roca and other researchers from the same research group has defined a predictor of success or failure of nasal high-flow oxygen therapy, which allows detecting which patients will respond positively to the therapy and, consequently, do not delay intubation in those who will not.This therapy is capable of administering up to 60 liters of hot and humidified oxygen to the patient, which improves both the physiological and oxygenation parameters and their comfort. "But this improvement can mask the clinical deterioration of the patient and delay intubation, which leads to a worse prognosis", says the doctor. In fact, despite available treatments, mortality in patients with acute respiratory failure remains high and delayed intubation is associated with a worse prognosis.Until now, there was no precise method to indicate when to switch from nasal high-flow cannula therapy to intubation of the patient. "The study checks the validity of the ROX index, which is defined as the ratio between oxygenation and respiratory rate, to determine whether or not it is necessary to intubate the patient and to be able to do it within a time window in which the patient's prognosis does not worsen", concludes Dr. Roca.These awards granted by Mutual Medical will give the awarded researchers an extra dose of motivation in their daily clinical practice. "Furthermore, as a young researcher, it is exciting to be able to open a line of research that I believe will have a positive impact on children with respiratory diseases", adds Dr. Diez.