At least 1 in 5 of us experience mental health problems during our lifetime but up to 50% of patients don’t receive adequate care. Treatments are available that allow patients to resume normal functioning in society but clinicians are struggling to make accurate diagnosis, match therapy to condition, and provide timely care. Currently, when patients’ symptoms and behaviour don’t meet the criteria set out in the diagnostic manual, it may take up to 10 years to diagnose major psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression. Delays in receiving a diagnosis can significantly impede delivery of the most effective treatment plan, exposing the patient to risk of further deterioration in well-being, reduction in quality of life leading to job loss, family breakdown, and self-harming. Mental ill health is now recognised as the largest cause of short and long term disability worldwide costing the global economy US$2.5T in 2010 (€798 billion in Europe), with a projected increase to over US$6T by 2030, a CAGR of 7.0%.
Following publication of the latest American psychiatric association’s diagnostic manual (DSM-5) in 2013 and the European equivalent ICD-10, two major impediments to progress in psychiatry received widespread attention. First, the diagnostic approach to date is based solely on patient history, symptoms and observed behaviour. Second, there are no objective tests on the market with sufficient sensitivity, specificity and stability required of clinico-diagnostic value at the level of the individual patient.
SaccScan is a novel point-of-care (PoC) software diagnostic system which has been demonstrated to detect schizophrenia with better than 95% accuracy and can been extended with the same precision to bipolar disorder and major depression illnesses. The test can be performed within 30 minutes and results produced over the internet at near real-time speed. Built on existing eye tracking technology, and access to proprietary clinical reference databases, the software diagnostic system successfully utilises eye-movement abnormalities as clinical diagnostic biomarkers for serious mental illnesses.
The overarching objective of the overall innovation project is validation and maturation of the SaccScan eye movement biomarker test for major psychiatric illnesses. The overall innovation project will deliver a minimum viable product with the necessary regulatory market approvals for Point-of-Care diagnosis at the level of the individual patient by 2020. The purpose of this feasibility study was to deliver an elaborated business plan supported by 1) a feasibility report on the technical viability of the machine learning system which underpins the SaccScan technology; 2) an evaluation on the health economic benefits to all stakeholders including patients, practitioners and health care providers; and 3) a detailed assessment of the market potential for SaccScan.
The conclusions from the feasibility report 1) confirmed the technical viability of SaccScan and identified improvements to complete a minimum viable product for market adoption; 2) confirmed the significant economic advantages for end users e.g. savings in the region of € 40,000 per patient over a 10 year period from improved treatment pathways in the case schizophrenia alone; and 3) confirmed the market potential for SaccScan in excess of € 100 million per annum when fully deployed to all key market segments worldwide over a 10-year horizon.
