Category: Uncategorized

HIHI welcomes a delegation from Shanghai Hospital Development Centre (SHDC), China to Health Innovation Hub Ireland in UCC

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Dr Michael Twomey,  Senior Clinical Research Manager HIHI, was delighted to welcome the delegation from Shanghai Hospital Development Centre (SHDC), China to Health Innovation Hub Ireland in UCC on Thursday the 10th of October, 2023.

The delegation included LU Chunyun, Deputy Director General of SHDC., ZHENG Xingdong, President of Shanghai General Hospital. LIU Yuehua, President of Shanghai Stomatological Hospital., GAO Wei, Executive President of Shanghai Eye Disease Prevention and Treatment Center, LIU Yajuan, Chief Accountant of SHDC., ZHENG Lulin Deputy Director of Organization and HR department of SHDC., Lillian Luo, Head of the Shanghai Representative Office UCC, and Bei Zhang, UCC Beijing Office, and Emma Connolly, UCC International Office.

 

 

Dr. Tanya Mulcahy HIHI Director features in the weekend edition of the Irish Times in an article by Ciara O’ Brien on the menopause and femtech products

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Hot flash trackers and pelvic floor exercisers: the rise of femtech for menopause

A wave of new tech products and supplements is being developed to help menopausal and perimenopausal women, and Irish start-ups are getting in on the act

Read the full article here

https://www.irishtimes.com/health/2023/10/14/hot-flash-trackers-and-pelvic-floor-exercisers-the-rise-of-femtech-for-menopause/

HIHI launches Rapid Innovation Days to develop solutions for womens health in Ireland

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Health Innovation Hub Ireland is delighted to launch our Femtech Rapid Innovation Days. The first of the series will take place on Thursday, 28th September from 6pm to 9pm. The second event on Thursday, 5th October 2023.

Let’s co-create solutions which will make a difference to the health and lives of Irish women.
Save the dates to your calendar, register today and join the Irish Femtech revolution.  https://bit.ly/3rhb56u

HIHI’s Dr Steven Griffin joins the line up at the Smarter Health Summit 2023 Digital Technologies transforming delivery of health and care

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HIHI Galway Hub Manager Steven Griffin joins the impressive line up of speakers judges and panelists at today’s Business Post Smarter Health Summit.

He joins  speakers and judges at the 12.30 session and will participate in the “innovation on the front line” section of the agenda.

Dr. Steven Griffin
Manager, Health Innovation Hub Ireland
Graham Armitage
Managing Director, EIT Health Ireland-UK
Siobhain Duggan
Director for Innovation & Healthcare, GS1 Ireland
Yvan Gouttebelle
Vice Chair, the HBAN MedTech Syndicate

 

The panel of judges will have the opportunity to view the Innovation Showcase at the summit with digital solutions including:

  • A disruptive motion capture technology platform for gait analysis in healthcare settings
  • A multi-faceted emotional/mental health digital support solution with a private voice diary at it’s core
  • AI-driven solutions to minimise healthcare professionals’ administrative tasks and enhance the quality of patient care
  • A digital tool for patients to access and manage healthcare appointments, while also making the burden of managing multiple appointments easier on healthcare providers
  • An innovative digital health company developing a first-of-its-kind menopausal symptom tracker to guide diagnosis and management of peri-menopause.

For the full agenda – https://smarthealthsummit.ie/agenda/

To register your innovation and connect with Health Innovation Hub Ireland

Log on today our innovation portal https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/ef7a4fe4a083436fb8fa20df03f1b4a9

HIHI completes latest pilot study with Whyze Health. The company’s platform using real word evidence will aid in the delivery of more informed prostate cancer treatment for patients

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Health Innovation Hub Ireland have recently completed a pilot study with Whyze Health, a digital health start-up that pioneers a Real World Evidence platform. With a focus on personalised healthcare and research, the Whyze Health Platform ensures the “right” treatment reaches the “right” patient at the “right” time. Physicians and patients receive treatment and research recommendations through robust AI-driven data analysis.

Using patients’ health data and test results, the WHYZE Health Platform helps guides physicians on the treatment options that best meet their patients needs. The WHYZE Health Platform also tracks the patient’s progress and collects relevant Real World Evidence (RWE) health data throughout the entire cycle of the patient’s care, including follow-up. It aids the delivery of informed prostate cancer treatment plans for patients.

In Ireland, about 3,940 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year. Using patients’ health data, test results, and Patient Reported Outcomes (PROMs), the WHYZE Health Platform aids physicians in selecting the treatment options that best meet their patient’s needs, driving better health outcomes for patients.

Feedback from patients and healthcare professionals was crucial to demonstrate the value of the Whyze Health platform. HIHI facilitated the pilot study in the Blackrock Health Galway Clinic.

HIHI assisted with ethics submissions and the development of surveys and supporting
documents necessary for the Blackrock Health Galway Clinic pilot study. HIHI also provided project management expertise throughout the project and facilitated regular update meetings during the pilot to track progress and outcomes and address any issues or feedback. Upon completion of the pilot study, HIHI reviewed the study data and completed a final Project Report for use in further platform developments.

Feedback obtained from the participants throughout this study has highlighted that a platform such as the Whyze Health platform would allow patients to feel more informed and significantly less anxious about their long-term health outcomes if their doctor used the platform with them when choosing a suitable treatment, they would find it easier to evaluate their choices for successful treatment, and they would be willing to share their anonymised health data with other patients and the research community.

Participants also noted the importance of being able to provide feedback on how they are responding to their treatment and having access to their medical records to help them to make better health decisions. 9 out of every 10 participants noted they would recommend the Whyze Health platform to a friend or colleague. Allowing patients to be active in their own treatment and healthcare planning while gathering essential data to help future patients may help to deliver effective care, reduce diagnostic timelines and improve patient outcomes.

Dr Tanya Mulcahy, Director Health Innovation Hub Ireland welcomed the completion of the pilot “By giving patients more control over their care an streamlining treatment options for physicians the Whyze Health Platform has the potential to improve health outcomes and advance the transition to patient centred healthcare”

Whyze Health explained the benefits of working with HIHI. “Whyze Health is enormously grateful to HIHI for their support in our first Case Study of our platform. Having a trusted research partner along with us was a great help in patient recruitment to our study and allowed our patients to feel part of something potentially important, not only to them but to other Irishmen suffering from prostate cancer. ‘Hats off’ to HIHI for their help here!”
(Professor Frank Sullivan CTO and co-Founder, Whyze Health; Medical Director Radiation
Oncology Blackrock Health, Galway Clinic).

Read the full case study here –https://hih.ie/downloads/case-studies/HIHI-case-study_Whyze_Health.pdf

Read HIHI’s latest clinical evaluation study with MedyTrak, an mHealth remote symptom tracker

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This July, HIHI is spotlighting our latest clinical evaluation study with MedyTrak, an mhealth remote symptom tracker designed to collect patient data between face to face consultations with healthcare providers. MedyTrak provides valuable real time data regarding a patient’s condition and allows the practitioner to obtain specific feedback leading to a more informed in-clinic consultation. An internet browsing service is facilitated by an NFC enabled card and the patient can upload photos and videos which leads to more informed treatment plans.

Read the full clinical evaluation study here https://hih.ie/downloads/case-studies/HIHI-case-study_Medytrak.pdf

MedyTrak aimed to explore the benefits and barriers to their platform and the procurement process.  A clinical evaluation is a key stage that allows feedback from end-users that can inform product application, market approach and offers the company to build a cohort of clinical champions and supports.  HIHI facilitated Medytrak by connecting the company with four clinical experts of orthopaedics and musculoskeletal medicine from the Mater Hospital, Cappagh Hospital, St. James’s Hospital and the Beacon Hospital. The feedback proved invaluable for MedyTrak.

Company Founder Tom O’ Connor explained the invaluable role of HIHI.

“The support we have received from HIHI has been invaluable. As a start-up company it can be difficult to navigate a route to experts and indeed to market, particularly in a relatively new industry such as mobile health(mHealth) technology. Through HIHI we gained access to clinical experts who shared significant insights into the challenges currently facing patients, healthcare professionals and the health system. This in turn brought clarity to the benefits MedyTrak, (mHealth remote symptom tracker and monitor accessible via a dashboard), can bring in terms of improving patient outcomes, refining clinician workflows and in
potentially providing cost savings to the health system.

These insights have helped to shape our strategy and have encouraged and motivated us to ensure we make every effort going forward to integrate this technology into treatment pathways. Industry experts believe that by 2030 mHealth technologies will have become firmly embedded within clinical practice and within standard treatment protocols for most diseases and conditions and will be widely used in prevention care. On behalf of the medytrak team, I would like to extend our sincere thanks and appreciation to HIHI, our journey would have been much more complex and time-consuming without your support”.

 

Dublin communities set to benefit from new health and wellness pilots through Smart D8

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Smart D8, one of five Smart Districts of the Smart Dublin programme designed to improve health and wellbeing in an urban population, has today announced the successful applicants from their third call for pilot projects. Smart D8 is led by The Digital Hub, St James’s Hospital, Dublin City Council and Smart Dublin.

A record number of 60 applications from private and public organisations were received following the pilot call in March. Four projects have now been selected which focus on menopause, physical rehabilitation, exercise and sleep apnea and will share a €50,000 fund to advance their existing work:

  • Menopause and the City from Dr Louise Fitzgerald of Grafton Medical Practice/InforMD.ie: This pilot is seeking to create a better educational ecosystem around menopause health for both individuals as well as families and friends. A project with truly scalable potential, Dr Louise Fitzgerald is aiming for Dublin 8 to become the centre of the first city-wide approach to positive menopause education and support.
  • Brace from Conor Motyer: Brace is a community-based recovery app which seeks to assist patients who are undergoing physical rehabilitation. With an added focus on the mental wellness aspect of rehabilitation, Brace uses exercise tracking, gamification and community support to improve both recovery engagement and mental health outcomes arising from research that has found that rehab program completion rates can be as low as 50%.
  • MoveAhead from Dr Jamie McGann and Dr Johann Issartel: MoveAhead is based on years of clinical experience from both founders, as well as practical research carried out with the GAA which has found that children’s movement skills are deteriorating in line with increased use of screens and technology. MoveAhead is the world’s first motion tracking and movement analytics platform built specifically for children, which informs games to assist with improving children’s movement skills.
  • Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) Identifier from Dr Brian Kent/St James’s Hospital: OSA Identifier is seeking to reduce the wait time for a sleep apnea diagnosis, which is currently up to two years. OSA Identifier has developed an app to provide at-home data which can be reviewed by clinical specialists and both inform and speed up diagnosis and treatment options for sleep apnea.

The Smart D8 consortium is led by The Digital Hub, St James’s Hospital, Dublin City Council and Smart Dublin, together with the Guinness Enterprise Centre, HSE Digital Transformation, Tyndall National Institute, St Patrick’s Mental Health Services, Trinity College Dublin Research & Innovation, Trinity Translational Medicine Institute, National College of Art & Design, and Health Innovation Hub Ireland. 

AIMs project works concludes, as framework of recommendations to support SME innovation procurement is prepared

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The “AIMS for Health Innovation – All-Island MedTech SMEs for Health Innovation”, funded by InterTradeIreland’s SYNERGY programme, is a joint initiative between Health Innovation Research Alliance Northern Ireland (HIRANI) and Health Innovation Hub Ireland (HIHI). The overall goal is to identify an improved adoption process within Health and Social Care (HSC) in NI and the HSE in Republic of Ireland (ROI), to support smaller SMEs and start-ups and encourage collaboration between industry and healthcare stakeholders. The partners will now develop a framework of recommendations to support SME innovation procurement in secondary care across the island of Ireland.

The project consisted of two in-person workshops with SMEs from NI and ROI held in March 2023 in Belfast, and May in Dublin. These included discussion around challenges for SMEs in health procurement. Following Workshop 1, a Working Group was established to seek input from healthcare and procurement representatives. The challenges identified were explored further via breakout groups at Workshop 2, held in May 2023 in Dublin. In addition to SME representatives, HSC, HSE procurement, policy and state agency representatives were in attendance for Workshop 2 to make recommendations that aligned with health procurement needs. These recommendations were discussed at the second Working Group meeting on 20th June 2023.

The framework of recommendations is currently being compiled and a full report will be published September 2023.

HSE Health matters covers HIHI national smart health TB study

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Excellent coverage in Health Service Executive summer edition of ‘Health Matters’ of our national TB smartphone study with St James’s Hospital Dublin. Results showed the smart health option would cost the Health Service Executive just 8 per cent (€300) per patient, compared to current system cost of €3,362 per patient, over a six month treatment period. Patient satisfaction increased and nursing time was cut from one hour to one minute per patient. More here: https://bit.ly/3r4n1bm p.24