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Eurostars: Swiss SME is seeking partner with experience in the field of medical devices, digital diagnostics, health software / app development, complimentary products for a fatigue digital diagnostics development project.

Country of Origin: Switzerland
Reference Number: RDCH20200707002
Publication Date: 8 July 2020

Summary

Monitoring levels of fatigue is an unmet clinical need. Current use of questionnaires is subjective and difficult to implement. A Swiss SME seeks to implement its digital diagnostic tools in health care either through its own digital platform or together with other health related platforms (preferably with a mobile module). To apply for Eurostars the SME is seeking partners with expertise in medical technology, digital diagnostics, health software / apps development for research cooperation.

Description

Fatigue is a symptom of many - if not most - health ailments. It is also a precursor of illness and a monitor of treatment as many body functions work less effectively under fatigue. Yet, fatigue monitoring is underutilized in healthcare because self-reported fatigue – the prevailing method - is notoriously subjective as results are based on personal moods, circumstances at the time questions are answered and types of questions asked.  

The Swiss SME has identified a digital method of objectively measuring levels of fatigue through the analysis of pulse waves. By identifying specific aspects of fatigue, over a dozen clinical studies have closely correlated sets of pulse wave features with narrowly defined fatigue types, each supported with gold standard comparisons. The results have also provided a means to discriminate between different types/sources of fatigue (i.e. physical, mental, and sleep-deprived based fatigue).

The SME has completed a machine learning platform, which identifies the most informative set of features from collected pulse wave data. The platform generates automatically a report indicating optimal machine learning techniques used along with the optimal group of feature correlations. The software also performs critical signal processing and feature extraction required to ensure that the most informative groups of features per targeted indication are optimally selected.

To collect pulse wave signals, the company has developed a smart phone app, which captures pulse waves by having subjects place his/her finger on the phone camera lens for one minute. Captured data is transmitted to the company’s cloud-based server, where the correlations are made, and results determined. Accordingly, the app, server and platform provide all the tools needed to perform pulse wave analysis to determine fatigue levels. More recently, the company has started identifying how fatigue analysis can best be applied in health care through several pilot studies at hospitals and clinics. These studies are relatively easy to perform as it involves no additional hardware and implementation is relatively easy to understand and perform.

The company seeks to apply to the Eurostars program and accordingly seeks 1-2 partners (R&D performing SMEs, research organisations, hospitals or healthcare organisations) that can offer either complimentary health metrics, assist in product development and/or identify the optimal means of integrating these tools in healthcare through a clearer and more targeted product profile.

 

The partners for a research cooperation agreement should come from Eurostars member countries. The Swiss SME is willing to coordinate the project but open in case another SME is interested to lead the project.



The Eurostars funding programme supports international innovative projects led by R&D-performing SMEs.

The Eurostars call cut-off date is 3 September 2020.

The deadline for expressions of interests is 7 August 2020.

Expertise sought

Health care experience either in home health care and/or in hospitals and clinics. 

Since the pulse wave collection is possible through a smart phone experience with mobile phone apps is helpful.

Requested partner

The specific area of activity of the partner:  

- Medical technology SMEs, ideally with complementary products.

- Software/app companies with experience in medical technology or e-health.

- Research centers, hospitals, healthcare organisations.



The tasks to be performed by the partner sought: 

- Provide access to patients interested in fatigue monitoring (such as cardiovascular, multiple sclerosis, cancer, and/or elderly populations). 

- Assist in product development.

- Integration of complimentary health metrics into the product.

- Integrating the tools in healthcare through a clearer and more targeted product profile.

- Software development such as app design and interface as well as privacy, GDPR and medical app compliance.