Brain training tools for better focus - using games and brainwaves to improve performance in children with ADHD

Project Information

CereBrill

Grant agreement ID: 830754

DOI

10.3030/830754

Project terminated on 22 October 2021

EC signature date 5 October 2018

Start date 1 October 2018

End date 31 January 2022

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 1 812 500,00

EU contribution

€ 1 268 750,00

Coordinated by

CORTECHSCONNECT LIMITED
Ireland

Periodic Reporting for period 4 - CereBrill (Brain training tools for better focus - using games and brainwaves to improve performance in children with ADHD)

Reporting period: 2021-06-01 to 2022-01-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Cortechs is addressing an exponentially growing brain-based health challenge impacting over 2 billion people and 1 in 9 children worldwide: the inability to reach the basic cognitive skill levels needed to maintain the attention needed for school, work, home and life. Cortechs create data-driven, therapeutic games that improve attention levels in children.

ADHD is expensive, it causes suffering and it impairs social and lifelong productivity for the child and their family. Each task a child partakes in needs their full attention to be performed successfully. While this statement may seem obvious, the reality is that current EU-wide approaches to treat these symptoms come at extortionate costs (trillions pa) to the European health and welfare systems with medication alone not tackling the core, cognitive skills affected in ADHD.

Our intervention provides games which can be played using your brainwaves on smart devices. Progress data can be remotely assessed by specialist clinicians to prescribe and amend individual therapies on secure web dashboards. Cortechs neurofeedback platform and gaming delivery system is a highly innovative, consumer facing solution in the cognitive healthcare market for ADHD. Therapeutics in cognitive impairments (CI) is a high-volume market valued at €80 billion and will grow to €393 billion market by 2022.

Our Cortechs enterprise platform (called CereBrill) applies key evidence-based ADHD treatments in an end-to-end digital solution with access to easy-to-use, engaging smart brainwave games to improve their behaviours. In light of the pandemic issues and the absence of remote clinic infrastructure in global mental health healthcare settings, our CereBrill system has evolved to expedite these needs now more than ever to assist ADHD healthcare providers in:
i. digitally providing relevant patient information to clinicians to assist phone clinics or in the complete absence of F2F clinic visits &
ii. target core executive functions through brain-powered gaming, digital reminders and time/task management tools.

CereBrill is device agnostic, cheaper than standard clinical offerings available and accessible anywhere with (as a complement/replacement to prescriptives) remotely and securely controlled and moderated by clinicians.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Cortechs has developed and protected its unique, configurable neurofeedback platform – CereBrill – to position it for commercialisation in key growth markets (UK and North America) while its clinical claims are being proven. CereBrill has been designed to enable the add-on of games for all age groups older than 12 years old and for games to be set depending on level of cognitive ADHD deficits. The platform also controls real-time data-flows between wearables (headsets, headbands and electronic/smartwatches) via a set of APIs, native apps & secure regional cloud infrastructure compliant with health care requirements.

Compared to traditional competitors, CereBrill interfaces, data-flows, and applications can be easily configured to suit a mix of licenses to healthcare groups/clinics and to consumers/patients wanting to experience neurofeedback on a personal basis at home or in a context where the next-of-kin and/or teachers are involved in day-to-day management of ADHD-related issues.

Despite delays to our clinical investigation kickoff, we completed the ethical approval process and began to test the effectiveness of our product with a clinical study with prestigious site partners St. Georges Hospital London under the auspices of globally renowned ADHD paediatrician, Dr. Serena Haywood. We partnered with clinical trial partner Afortiori Development to ensure compliance and quality within our study from start to finish and we expected the study to be completed by Q2 2020.

In the second year of the CereBrill grant period, Cortechs were approved an amendment in the form of a no-cost extension of 8 months in which to complete all deliverables in response to the COVID 19 pandemic that hit in February 2020. Key deliverables and milestones originally due for September 2020 were approved for postponed submission in May 2021.

Cortechs has revised the design features of CereBrill platform to adapt it for immediate commercialisation in key growth ADHD healthcare and EdTech markets impacted by the pandemic – UK and North America – while the clinical claims are being proven. Cortechs can help to improve remote access and care for clinicians to their vulnerable mental health populations during and beyond the pandemic lockdown using the CereBrill platform.

Our CereBrill system expedites these needs now more than ever to assist ADHD healthcare providers in:
(i) digitally providing relevant patient information to clinicians to assist phone clinics or in the complete absence of F2F clinic visits and
(ii) target core executive functions through brain-powered gaming, digital reminders and time/task management tools.

The COVID-19 pandemic is placing unprecedented pressure on the healthcare system, resulting in significant disruption to services, including mental health. The CereBrill platform connects specialists to their remote patients and helps at-home patients manage their ADHD symptoms especially attention & anxiety levels. CereBrill offerings have evolved into a web-based platform with mobile applications (biofeedback, games and wearables); CereBrill gathers data from children in an instinctive format on their watch/phone, recording contemporaneous time markers including when medication is taken in order to see effectiveness of interventions including medication, unique neurofeedback games and task reminders. Clinicians use the CereBrill platform to gather relevant data on patient activity and progress in the absence of F2F clinics. CereBrill provides the relevant data on user dashboards with simple secure logins.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Progress beyond the State of the Art for CereBrill is to be found in its platform design and architecture that enables, integrates and supports new types of neurofeedback applications beyond the native games currently in development. In fact, CereBrill is being extended into a set of APIs that can ingest biofeedback data, third-party data, and contextual data from cohort data that can originate from wearables such as consumer smartwatches, database of EEG data and/or ADHD scales, and big data from electronic repositories used in health care settings.

CereBrill State of the Art will also be evident in supporting custom data workflows depending on the applications supported – native games, native apps, in-browser extensions – and controlling the user interfaces tailored for clinicians and their patients. This 2-year development will answer demands from patients and their next-of-kin and teacher(s) who want to have timely, relevant, personal information to support the management of ADHD. Based on a combination of Health Economics findings and clinical study outcomes in the coming months, CereBrill can have wider societal implications by launching and customizing applications targeted at age groups older than 12 years old and at other cognitive deficits such as autism, epilepsy, memory loss, and sleep deficits.

The combination of neurofeedback data with other biofeedback data types such as movement, exercise, heart pulses, sleep patterns, gamification data, native applications usage data will also widen the social impact that CereBrill can achieve over a medium-term period.

Recruitment Poster for Clinical Investigation with St. George's University Hospital

CereBrill Wellness Dashboard

CereBrill uses games which can be played using brainwaves on smart devices

CereBrill Log In