Project description
Rapid point-of-care sepsis diagnosis
Sepsis is a life-threatening condition caused by an inflammatory immune response triggered by an infection. Sepsis affects more than 30 million people and results in 8 million deaths worldwide each year, more than 3 million being children, translating into healthcare costs of nearly $ 24 billion annually in the US alone. Timely diagnosis is critical as the chance of survival drops by 7.6 % each hour of disease progression, and achieving an early and accurate diagnosis is a prerequisite for successful antibiotic therapy. The EU-funded SepsiCare project aims to develop an affordable photonic integrated biochip to provide a set of key patient indicators to the clinician in order to diagnose sepsis, monitor disease progression and evaluate the effect of treatment within minutes. This multi-sensor test will simultaneously quantify multiple parameters establishing sepsis condition, bacteria identity and optimal therapy with high accuracy.
Objective
SepsiCare project, aims at developing a profitable and scalable business based on SepsiCare integrated biosensors. SepsiCare is an integrated biochip that is capable to provide a set of key patient-condition indicators to the clinician in order to diagnose sepsis, monitor disease progression and assess the effects of treatment within minutes. The SepsiCare device integrates multiple highly sensitive photonic sensors on a low cost 20x20 mm2 semiconductor chip that is configured to quantify a panel of sepsis related biomarkers from small volumes of patient whole blood. What differentiates SepsiCare from the competition is that it offers a multi-sensor test to quantify multiple parameters that indicate sepsis, identify bacteria and guide therapy with high accuracy (concentrations of pg/mL) and at an affordable price (12 Euro per chip). Sepsis affects more than 30 million people worldwide each year and takes 8 million lives including more than 3 million children, translating into healthcare yearly costs nearly $24 billion in the US alone. Starting appropriate and effective antimicrobial treatment is crucial for sepsis survival. Previous reports have shown that the chance of survival drops by 7.6% each hour of disease progression until an appropriate antimicrobial treatment is started. Therefore, achieving an early and accurate diagnosis is a prerequisite for rapid and successful antibiotic therapy. However, point of care (POC) solutions for fast, affordable and effective management of sepsis remains a challenge. The impact of this unmet clinical need to the hospitals relates to the increased time & cost of patient hospitalization (~€30K per sepsis patient). For patients, this has an impact on increased mortality and morbidity (1 in 3 patients of sepsis die) resulting from suboptimal treatment of bacterial infections. By treating just 25% of sepsis patients on time using SepsiCare, a hospital saves up to €1M per year.
Fields of science
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringsensorsbiosensors
- social sciencessociologydemographymortality
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesmicrobiologybacteriology
- natural sciencesphysical scienceselectromagnetism and electronicssemiconductivity
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinator
2414 Nicosia
Cyprus
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.