New epilepsy device can predict looming seizures
MELBOURNE: Life-changing progress has been made on the development of a medical device which can help predict epileptic seizures, thanks to an Australian based start-up company.
St Vincent’s Hospital director of neurology Mark Cook designed the “Epi-Minder” – an implant which is inserted on the inside of the scalp to constantly monitor brain activity and detect patterns to predict seizures – in 2003, but the prototype has not been a viable medical solution until now.
“What we could see from the (earlier studies) study was that there was no way we could handle all that data … we only had 15 patients in that study and it would have overwhelmed every computer system available at that time,” Professor Cook said.
“We have a solution, but the solution requires very sophisticated analysis using huge amounts of data, which have got to be accessed live. Now we have a way to do that.”
After Professor Cook teamed up with Cochlear to create the device, he most recently partnered with Seer Medical in April of this year – a technology start-up specialising in data analysis for epilepsy – to distil data into patterns.
“So it goes from this device (the implant and external piece) through bluetooth to the phone. From the phone it goes to the cloud. The patient has a mobile with them all the time or nearby, and it transmits constantly,” he said.
“What we were looking for were those bursts of seizure activity which can be very brief, milliseconds perhaps, so the machine sorts through and detects the data.
“When we collect all the electrical events we can see a pattern. Once you see the patterns – and they are individual, everyone’s got their own pattern – you can actually create a forecasting algorithm for the patients.”
Epilepsy can be debilitating for the 250,000 Australians who have been diagnosed with the neurological condition. Often a patient will not know they are having a seizure, which can prevent them from driving, working or taking care of children.
Patients with the implant will have access to an app with a calendar that will report days when they are likely to have a seizure and give them their independence back.
