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Epileptic Seizure Prediction System (ESPS) - Predicting and preventing epileptic seizures based on respiratory biofeedback & machine learning.

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Wearable technology gives hope to epilepsy patients

Wearable technology that tracks respiratory patterns could help epilepsy patients to recognise when a seizure might strike. EU funding has helped to bring this innovation closer to market.

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Epilepsy is a neurological disorder that affects over 50 million people worldwide. More than one in every thousand people with epilepsy die from seizures known as Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy Patients (SUDEP), and if seizures remain uncontrolled, the risk of SUDEP increases seven-fold. The cause of SUDEP is still unknown. “The medical challenge is not only that there is currently no cure, but that around a third of all patients do not respond to drugs,” says ESPS project coordinator Flavia Wahl, CEO of www.ibreve.com (iBreve) in Ireland. “While new therapies have continually entered the market, this staggering statistic has not changed in decades.” For people living with epilepsy, not knowing if or when a seizure will take place can take a considerable toll on their quality of life. “A seizure can happen several times a day, or suddenly out of the blue,” says Wahl. “This uncertainty means that just leaving home and being outside becomes challenging, not to mention playing sports or enjoying certain social activities.”

Wearable self-care technology

iBreve has been working on patent-pending wearable technology that can give epilepsy patients the confidence to go about their active daily lives. The 6-month ESPS project provided Wahl with funding to carry out market feasibility studies, and to develop a comprehensive business plan for bringing the technology to market. During ESPS, interviews with stakeholders were carried out, market research conducted and partnerships with technology and healthcare experts established. “The idea we have is that these devices analyse the wearer’s respiratory patterns in real time, giving them up-to-date information on their state of health,” she says. “We also wanted to help drive forward a major shift towards preventive and personalised treatment for epilepsy patients and caregivers.”

Bringing innovation to market

The solution, which is still at an early stage, incorporates what Wahl identifies as the ‘Five Ps’ of what future healthcare will look like: Personalised, Predictive, Participatory, Preventive and Privacy-by-design. “The solution is personalised in that it can adapt to user needs in real time,” she says. “It is also predictive in that it learns from past situations to calculate personal baselines.” The device is also designed to empower the user, help prevent seizures and protect the user’s privacy. Following completion of the ESPS project, iBreve has decided to focus initially on epilepsy patients who do not respond to pharmaceutical treatment and who report stress as the main seizure trigger. “This means that our device will address the market segment with the largest unmet need,” says Wahl. New opportunities for stress reduction, remote monitoring and chronic disease management applications were also identified in the project. The next phase will involve testing the devices with users and hospitals before then going into phased roll-out. For this, iBreve is currently looking for international strategic partners, on both the medical and the commercial side. The start-up is also looking to secure follow-up funding for clinical trials and to scale up production of the wearable device. “There is a popular saying: ‘Hardware is hard!’” says Wahl. “But when you succeed – for example when we developed our first device – we literally had something in our hand. This is very rewarding.”

Keywords

ESPS, epilepsy, iBreve, SUDEP, seizure, wearable, respiratory, neurological, pharmaceutical

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