Objective
12% of adults suffer from obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Despite the fact that it is a serious disease, it goes undiagnosed 80% of the time. The cost of undiagnosed OSA patients is €6,000 per person per year whilst the cost of diagnosed patients is only €2,000 per person per year. Multiplying by around €4,000 that could be saved per diagnosed person, the total savings would be €160 billion/year.
Very effective treatment options exist, but the traditional diagnostic infrastructure is neither affordable nor scalable to diagnose this vast number of unidentified sufferers. To this day, the polysomnography is the gold-standard for diagnosing OSA. However, this method is expensive, time-consuming and cannot keep pace with the huge demand.
Neoma Labs has developed Sensa: a cost-effective, miniaturized and connected device that has the potential to become the new gold-standard in OSA diagnostic. The unique approach is measuring mandibular movements to assess OSA. The Sensa solution adds a qualitative layer to the quantitative measures, providing consumers with a sense of control over their health-life balance.
The OSA diagnostics market is driven by a growing awareness regarding the ill effects of untreated sleep apnea, a large pool of undiagnosed OSA patients as well as emerging technologies. Regarding our revenue model, we are considering a pay-per-use model at €50/screening.
With its simplicity and high clinical validation, Sensa will be able to help lower the 80% of OSA patients who go undiagnosed, thereby reducing the costs/burden associated with the disease. With around 408 million adults in the EU, this would mean 49 million people suffer from sleep apnea and 40 million never get diagnosed.
Neoma Labs was founded in June 2015 by a team of experts with professional experience in the field of cardio-respiratory and sleep medicine (with previous experiences in Belgian and American companies, both specialized in the field of cardio-respiratory medical instrumentations.
Fields of science
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicinepsychiatrysleep disorders
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencespublic health
- social scienceseconomics and businesseconomicsproduction economicsproductivity
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringsensors
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinator
5101 Namur
Belgium
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.