Australian medical technology innovators Epiminder and Seer Medical collaborate on epilepsy seizure detection and forecasting
- Epiminder is developing Minder®, an ultra-long term EEG implant to monitor brain activity to improve the standard of care for epilepsy sufferers.
- Seer Medical is developing revolutionary cloud and app-based platforms to detect report and forecast seizures and abnormal brain activity
Private medical technology innovators Epiminder Pty Ltd and Seer Medical Pty Ltd have signed a strategic collaboration to accelerate ultra- long term EEG monitoring so those people who suffer seizures may have an advanced digital therapeutics product to detect and forecast their seizures.
Epiminder is evaluating its Minder® ultra-long term EEG implant at St Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne. These ultra-long term EEG recordings produce enormous data sets and require advanced algorithms and data curation to generate new insights into patient seizure patterns. Leveraging Seer Medical’s advanced capabilities in this space will enable, for the first time, specialists in this field to better understand individual patients’ circumstances and medication.
University of Melbourne Professor Mark Cook, Chair of Medicine at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne, said “Many people with epilepsy do not achieve adequate control of their seizures. Many of these people live in persistent anxiety and everyday tasks like driving or cooking can become life-threatening. Seer Medical and Epiminder have very complementary technologies that, together, have the potential to dramatically improve epilepsy care.”
Rohan Hoare, CEO of Epiminder said, “This agreement between Seer Medical and Epiminder is poised to accelerate the clinical insight of Minder EEG recordings and potentially add substantial value to our product offering.”
Dean Freestone, CEO of Seer Medical said, “Bringing together the Minder EEG monitor and the Seer Cloud technology, patients will be able to gauge the likelihood of a seizure occurring via an app, bringing back control into people’s lives.”
Epilepsy affects 65 million people globally, with current medications only effective in two in three cases.
-ENDS-
Media inquiries:
Dr John Heasman, Chief Operating Officer, Epiminder +61 421 709 978
Rudi Michelson, Monsoon Communications +61 411 402 737
Background:
About epilepsy
More than 250,000 Australians and 3.4 million Americans are currently living with epilepsy, the most common brain disorder worldwide that can affect people at any age. Refractory epilepsy affects 30 per cent to 40 per cent of these patients, who cannot be adequately managed by drug therapy to remain seizure free.
About Epiminder
Epiminder was founded in 2017 from research led by the Bionics Institute and St Vincent’s/University of Melbourne with the purpose of improving the lives of people living with epilepsy.
Minder® is a minimally-invasive device for long-term monitoring of brain seizures, providing patients and their doctors with detailed data on seizure activity and frequency over an extended period. Patients can wear the device as they go about their daily lives.
Minder’s long-term monitoring of patients outside of a controlled clinical environment is expected to lead to more effective treatment of underlying conditions, including determining the effectiveness of drug therapies. Subject to clinical results, later generations of the device could include advanced detection and warning of impending seizure events.
About Seer
Seer Medical is the leading provider of home monitoring services in Australia and is on the forefront of seizure detection and forecasting services.
Seer solves major accessibility problems of healthcare, by using technology to improve diagnostics and management of disease and to transfer those services from the hospital to the home. For now, Seer is focusing on epilepsy.
Since Seer’s launch in 2017, almost 6,000 Australians have been monitored in their homes using portable video-EEG-ECG equipment for the purposes of epilepsy diagnostics. Had these services been provided in state and territory hospitals instead, it would have required an estimated 30,000 bed days at a cost of more than $50m and resulted in substantial delays
for the patients. That is 85 bed years diverted from the hospital system within four years of operations.