Detecting Tiny Tremors
Future
The BRM2 Brain Monitor marketed by BrainZ Instruments.
BrainZ Instruments listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in December 2005, raising A$13 million in capital for its international expansion plans in conjunction with distributor GE Healthcare. The company has great expectations for the future of its intellectual property.
The most recent breakthrough is a computer-aided seizure detection software package, RecogniZe, which delivers real-time information on seizure activity to help clinicians make decisions based on the output of the BRM2 monitor.
The new software uses formulae devised by the BrainZ Instruments researchers to look for repetitive spikes in normally random brain activity. It triggers an alarm if it detects patterns that could indicate a seizure. The software was launched in New Zealand and Australia earlier this year and will be released internationally early in 2007.
The greatest success so far is in detecting seizures in full-term infants, but Mr MacDonald believes this will eventually apply to pre-term infants, and other patient groups where there may be brain damage caused by trauma or infection.
The ability to read brainwaves might provide indications of any number of other conditions, so BrainZ Instruments is also reviewing ways of integrating other physiological data, such as blood pressure and heart rates, to help clinicians reach conclusions.
There are 12 engineers involved in development, including software engineers, an electrical engineer and a mechanical engineer. Because most of the intellectual property resides in the software, the monitors can easily be upgraded as advances are made. There have so far been three major revisions, and there are plans for a further revision in 2007.
Currently the team is working on enhancing data processing for more transparent diagnosis. “We are looking at developing the ‘computer-aided digital clinician’; rather than the clinician having to pick seizures from the patterns, we want to help them find those seizures for quicker, easier decision-making.” Mr MacDonald believes there is potential for the monitor to become part of a more elaborate diagnostic system, reflecting the direction in which the medical engineering industry is moving.
He is convinced BrainZ Instruments has struck a rich vein, and its market potential is still a long way from being fully realised. Coming out of the university, analysing existing data from hospitals and listening to the “voice of the customer” has given BRM2 and its software an important edge over its competitors.
Mr MacDonald says it was important to focus on a practical system solution based on improving clinical outcomes. “You can do good engineering but it’s only as good as the problem it solves. If it doesn’t solve the right problem then nobody is going to buy it.”
