Category: News

Minister Simon Harris was happy to demonstrate the TickerFit App with CEO Avril Copeland at the Launch of Health Innovation Hub Ireland recently. Avril is currently finalising a GP based trial of the TickerFit App facilitated by HIHI.

MDA and BioInnovate will be hosting a third Medtech Brew due to popular demand, Thursday 1 September, 18:30-20:00, Glasshouse at Electric, in Galway. The theme for the event is, ‘Money, money, money’, and it will explore routes to funding for medtech businesses.

We are delighted to announce our speakers:

• Mike Ryan, Irrus Investments (Angel network)
• Wayne Allen, Embo Medical
• Hugh Kavanagh, Mainstay Medical

Medtech Brew is an informal networking event to support start-ups in medtech. Three entrepreneurs will speak for 10 minutes each (no slides just experience) and share their insights. There will be plenty of time for informal Q&A to ask our entrepreneurs about any aspects of their journey which resonates with you. Medtech Brew is a new style of informal networking forum, set in a pub environment, with the opportunity to discuss and share views, challenge the conventional wisdom, and meet and learn from peers.

The event is free, but you need to register here in advance as there is high demand for places.

Register Here

Simplicity-MDT™ is nSilico’s fully customisable Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) management software platform.

Designed in collaboration with clinical staff, for clinical staff, it enables effective patient management by facilitating discussion of significant clinical results and agreement on best possible treatment plans.

HIH Project Objective

To trial Simplicity MDT on a busy clinical MDT, and investigate the feasibility of developing this platform for multiple MDT applications.

Project Summary

HIH identified the breast cancer team in CUH as a good trial option- this would provide a reference site for other breast cancer units in Ireland and would be a good testbed for developing a mechanism to roll-out to other MDT disciplines. The breast cancer pathology team led the project – initially  to develop the platform to capture pathology needs before expanding to surgery and radiology disciplines.

A project team was established and project plan developed. The objective of the project was to trial the MDT platform that  addressed the specific needs of the Breast Cancer MDT. The initial phase of the project was exploratory followed by development work- with the company discussing needs with the clinical team, developing the platform then testing and reiterating until the team were happy with the prototype. The clinical team then sought additional functionality that would make the product more effective and provide outputs that are not currently available through their current process (e.g. reporting, tracking, flagging and the inability to close a meeting without an action assigned to each patient). User testing in parallel with the current system took place over a number of weeks, revisions and modification were made based on feedback. Further parallel testing was completed until the team was satisfied that the system was operating effectively.

TickerFit is a unique cloud based solution that empowers health professionals to prescribe and deliver personalised physical activity programmes for patients, for the prevention and treatment of chronic disease. Incorporating the latest evidence on physical activity and behaviour change/ adoption, TickerFit unlocks the potential of physical activity as a prevention and treatment of chronic disease. Using the system, health professionals can safely deliver an evidence based, personalised physical activity programme to each patient in a few simple steps. Using the smartphone technology, the patient can passively track their activity, monitor their progress and access features designed to promote physical activity and healthy behaviours.

HIH Project Objective

To engage GPs and patients and conduct a pilot trial of Ticketfit on eighty community dwelling sedentary adults over a defined period. To assess feedback conduct a statistical analysis of benefit and provide a reference site for the product.

Project Summary

A protocol was developed and submitted for ethics approval. The product was presented to the clinical team in Mitchelstown Primary Care Centre, Cork. A briefing document was circulated to all the practice GPs and patients were invited to attend a clinic on designated days. Patients were enrolled and trained on how to use the technology. Their activity was tracked and monitored and data was collected. The number of patients enrolled at the Mitchelstown location was lower than required for the trial, therefore, the HIH engaged two additional locations- one in Wexford and one through the Department of General Practice, UCC to continue the trial. This is currently underway, patients have been enrolled and monitoring is being performed.

Once all the data is collected, a statistical assessment will be conducted and a final report generated. This may be used by the company for sales and marketing, the company will now have two reference sites.

 Clinical Location and Team

Mitchelstown Primary Care Centre, Dr John Cox, Fethard-on-Sea, Wexford and Dr Henry Smithson, Department of general Practice, UCC and GP Practice, Knocknaheeny, Cork.

Project Status

The enrollment and collection of data from patients at Mitchelstown Primary care centre is now complete. Recruitment of patients at two additional locations is progressing and initial assessment is underway. A final report will be produced once all analyses are complete.

HIHI with McLernon’s Software and Complete GP are and trialling an Electronic Prescription System that uses barcodes printed on the prescription to populate the pharmacy software when scanned on site using a barcode reader.
The current practice of creating a prescription within a GP Practice Management System and printing either to a laser or dot matrix printer has always lead to the potential for error when being transcribed into a pharmacy system due to legibility or human error. This puts the patient at greater risk; however it’s possible to reduce potential errors through the introduction of Electronic Prescription Services (EPS). This enables the prescription to be transferred electronically from GP surgeries to a Pharmacy Computerised System. As there is a legal requirement for a paper-based prescription, the paper prescription will be maintained as the primary document during the course of this study. All other relevant legislation will also be adhered to.

HIH Project Objective
To introduce and roll-out a pilot operation and assessment of a barcode enabled Electronic Prescription Process to Pharmacies in the Mallow catchment area. The project will include Pharmacies using McLernon’s Software and also those who do not use McLernon’s software.

Project Summary
Introduction of Electronic Prescription Service to pharmacies within a 5 mile radius of the Mallow region. All pharmacies in this region were invited to participate. All GPs in this geographic region were informed of the project.

The project was conducted in stages.
Stage 1 – Proof of concept that the bar code on the paper prescription could be used to pull the relevant data into the pharmacy computer system.
Stage 2 – Advance notification to GPs and Pharmacies of the pilot.
Stage3 – GP and Pharmacy feedback
Stage 4- evaluation of data and completion final report

Clinical Location and Team
All Pharmacies within a 5-mile radius of Mallow Town were invited to participate, the following agreed:
Mulcahy’s Pharmacy Main St
Mallow Community Pharmacy
O’Sullivan’s Pharmacy
Doneraile Pharmacy
Boots Pharmacy
Mallow Late Night Pharmacy
Townview Pharmacy
Weedle Pharmacy
Joyce’s Pharmacy

Project Status
The pilot operation is complete. Surveys have been collected and data is currently under review.
Meetings and surveys with participating pharmacies provided valuable feedback.
A report is being completed- this will provide an independent review of the operation of a barcode enabled EPS.

EI Innovation Voucher Call is now open

Click here for more details 

Cork – April 15, 2016 – Radisens announced today it has won the Red Herring Top 100 Europe award, a prestigious award honoring the year’s most promising private technology ventures from the European business region.

The Red Herring editorial team selected the most innovative companies from a pool of hundreds from across Europe. The nominees were evaluated on 20 main quantitative and qualitative criterion: they include disruptive impact, market footprint, proof of concept, financial performance, technology innovation, social value, quality of management, execution of strategy, and integration into their respective industries.

This unique assessment of potential is complemented by a review of the actual track record and standing of a company, which allows Red Herring to see past the “buzz” and make the list a valuable instrument for discovering and advocating the greatest business opportunities in the industry. The nominees pitched their businesses at the Red Herring Europe Forum in Amsterdam on April 13 with the winners announced at the Gala Dinner that evening.

“This year was rewarding, beyond all expectations” said Alex Vieux, publisher and CEO of Red Herring. “There are many great companies producing really innovative and amazing products in Europe. We had a very difficult time narrowing the pool, shortlisting the finalists and selecting the winners. Radisens shows great promise and therefore deserves to win this award. We know that the 2016 crop will grow into some amazing companies that are sure to make an impact.”

Finalists for the 2016 edition of the Red Herring 100 Europe award were selected based upon their technological innovation, management strength, market size, investor record, customer acquisition, and financial health. During the months leading up to the announcement, Red Herring reviewed over 1200 companies in the telecommunications, security, cloud, software, hardware, biotech, healthcare, mobile and other industries completed their submissions to qualify for the award.

About Radisens Diagnostics

Radisens, a private venture-backed diagnostics company, is breaking new ground in the decentralisation of routine blood testing from central reference laboratories into physician offices, outpatient clinics, pharmacies and other near-patient test settings. With a finger-prick of blood, this multi-mode diagnostic device will return laboratory-grade results instantly within a patient’s physician visit.

Radisens’ initial menu concentrates on panels for those suffering with high-burden chronic disease resulting in improved patient outcomes and more efficient healthcare management. By integrating immunoassay, clinical chemistry, cell counting and other test modes, this near-patient device will finally open blood testing access to all with instant diagnosis and monitoring. The fear or needles, the many anxious days or weeks of waiting for results, the multiple physician visits, will all be things of the past.

To give you a brief understanding of the programme – BioInnovate Ireland was developed by NUI Galway to focus on enabling innovators and innovation specifically for the medical technology sector.

The BioInnovate activity centres around experienced engineers, clinicians, business and other professionals working together to identify clinical needs through immersing themselves in a clinical environment, inventing solutions to meet those needs and implementing a strategy to commercialise the technology.

This is achieved through a number of activities that provide a continuum from training (to enable the next generation of leaders in medtech innovation) to an incubation environment, which enables medical technologies to be developed and prove concept before commercialisation. These activities are structured around the following programmes:

• BioInnovate Fellowship Programme.
• BioInnovate Industry Training Workshops
• NUI Galway Medical Device Incubation

BioInnovate is a unique style of programme that has broken down barriers, combining multiple disciplines (Engineering, Business and Medicine) and institutions (NUIG, UL, UCC). It has facilitated enhanced interactions between academics, clinicians and industry, to foster an environment of innovation and creativity in order to strengthen the medtech sector in Ireland.

Currently we are recruiting for our full-time Fellowship programme. This is a stipend supported programme, and we are trying to attract doctors that may be interested in taking a year of research (Fellowship award includes a research masters), and might have an interest in innovation. I have attached a flier with recruitment details to this email.  We are recruiting for teams with both a medtech and ICT focus on the solutions they develop.

If you are interested please register your interest at www.bioinnovate.ie or contact Dr Paul Anglim (paul.anglim@nuigalway.ie

We are trying to circulate the recruitment information and programme information to doctors nationally if possible. If you might have any advice on how to do so, it would be greatly appreciated.

BioInnovate is now recruiting for the 2016/017 Fellowship – visit www.bioinnovate.ie for further details.