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INDUSTRY FOCUS MONITORING SLEEP
‘There has been immense benefit to the economy in terms of the skills and experience gained by Irish science and engineering graduates’
If you or your doctor everwonderedwhat is happeningwhen you sleep, Irish companyBian- caMed has technology to find
out.Monitoring sleep is important because sleep disruption or deficit is linked not only to feeling unwell in the short-term, but also possibly chronic disease in the long-term, saysBiancaMedCEODr Conor Hanley. Tomake it easier tomonitor sleep,BiancaMed
has developed SleepMinder, a sensor-based tech- nology that can detectmotion as a person sleeps, without the need for themtowear electrodes, sensors, belts orwires. Ultra-lowpower radio- waves transmitted fromthe device reflect off the person’s skin, and the signal is used to determine the person’smovement, breathing and heart rate as they sleep. Hanley originally developed the technologywith
BiancaMed co-founders Prof ConorHeneghan and Dr Philip de Chazal at University College Dublin, and describes hownon-invasive it is in prac- tice. “The product literally needs to be placed beside your bedwithin arm’s reach and it automaticallymeasures your data,” he says. Then when the personwakes, they can see the data, and the information can also be stored in the cloud. BiancaMed has nowbeen acquired byResMed, and the SleepMinder
active topic of research and innovation as well. Sowhat is it about Ireland that keeps
the sector thriving? Several factors have roles to play, including a favourable tax landscape for invest- ment, a well educated and English speaking workforce and Ireland’s posi- tion as a gateway into the European market. And looking to the future,Higgins ar-
gues the need to build on strengths while preparing for changes. Already there is work ongoing in universities and colleges in Ireland on emerging areas of medical technology such as nanomedicine and regenerative medi- cine, and there’s a keen interest in com- bining technologies to improve value and meet market needs. “Because of the global challenges,
companies have to show the benefits, such as reduced cost in hospital stays, recovery times, costs to companies,” she says. “We need to look to our key strengths but also to look to what is happening globally.”
TRANSLATING INNOVATION Translating an idea into an innovative medical device takes ingenuity and hard work, but plenty of Irish companies are risingtothechallenge, tacklingconditions
technology is in use around theworld. “We intend to enable people to learn and improve the virtuous circle
ofwell-being – sleep, diet and exercise – and so help people to bemore proactive about their health,” says Dr Hanley. “And for peoplewho have a chronic diseasewhere sleep is thought to play a role,we hope to help gather information about the patient’s sleep so that their condition can bemanagedmore easily.”
as diverse as cancer and tinnitus. MitaMed in Cork is developing a
device to boost anti-cancer drug uptake by tumours. The approach works by applying a small electrical current di- rectly to the tumour, which makes it more ‘leaky’ and permeable to drugs that can attack it. The device, called calledEndoVe,was
developed at University College Cork and has been successfully used to treat patients with skin cancer. And now Mi- taMed is trialling the technology in the treatment of colorectal cancer. The ultimate goal is for patients to need a lower burden of anti-cancer drugs, have less invasive treatment and showbetter outcomes, according to company co- founder and director Dr Declan Soden. “This work has been greatly facili-
tated over the last few years with the development of clinical infrastructures to support the process of translational research,” says Dr Soden.
14 INNOVATION IRELAND REVIEW Issue 4 Spring/Summer 2012 “Organisations such as Enterprise
Ireland have helped greatly along with the likes ofMolecular Medicine Ireland and the Irish Clinical Research Infra- structure Network together with ICORG (the All Ireland Cooperative ClinicalResearchGroup) to support the development of more novel clinical therapies, and this should see a pipeline of newproducts hitting themarket over the coming years.” Another medical technology that
grew from a university innovation is MuteButton, a neuromodulation device that targets tinnitus, a condition where a person perceives illusory noises such as ringing or hissing even though there's no outside source of the sound. MuteButton looks to help by combin-
ing sound and electrical stimulation of nerves in the tongue to target and sup- press the brain activity that gives rise to the imaginary sound. The user listens to specially tuned sound while
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