Project description
Novel device for nocturnal epilepsy seizures
More than 50 million people suffer worldwide from epilepsy with less than a third of them finding little or no relief, particularly night seizures, from medication. The EU-funded NightWatch project is a registered medical device that detects and notifies wirelessly remote caregivers in case of heavy nocturnal seizures, within a matter of seconds. The device includes a bracelet that measures heart rate and movements, creating a unique algorithm. Clinically tested, the device can detect more than 90 % of all types of urgent nocturnal seizures making it the most reliable system available.
Objective
More than 50M people worldwide suffer from epilepsy, characterized by uncontrolled seizures, and about 30% find no relief from those despite taking medication. Nocturnal seizures can be critical; each year at least 33.000 people in EU die of Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP), 40% of which could be prevented by attending the seizures on time. This is a continuous challenge for patients and caregivers, with important social and societal consequences (anxiety, depression, lack of sleep), and high intramural care costs (over €20 billion per year in EU).
The NightWatch is a registered medical device that detects and notifies wirelessly remote caregivers in case of heavy nocturnal seizures in just few seconds. The bracelet uses a combination of heart rate and movement measurement, a unique AI algorithm conceived by three Dutch institutes specialised in epilepsy, automatically adapting to different patient patterns to minimize false alarm rate. It has been clinically tested and can detect > 90% of all types of urgent nocturnal seizures making it the most reliable system available.
The NightWatch targets caregivers, patients and professionals who seek an effective alarm system for severe nocturnal seizures. It improves their quality of life giving them peace of mind, higher level of independency, reduces cost of care by reducing the need for intramural attention, and prevents deaths caused by SUDEP. With a trend to-wards home care and self-monitoring pushing market growth (expected to reach €4.0 billion in 2019), wearables becoming the preferred type of seizure monitoring. EU leads the seizure monitor devices market (46%), followed by North America (28%).
NightWatch is the flagship product of LivAssured, a Dutch company created in 2013 as a spin-off to take over the commercial exploitation of the research results of the Tele-Epilepsy Consortium on nocturnal seizures. With its full commercial exploitation, we expect an accumulated profit of €19M and a ROI of 4
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinator
5261AD VUGHT
Netherlands
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.