RCSI Licenses Technology to S3 Connected Health and Wins eHealth Innovation of the Year Award 2020

Congratulations to to Professor Richard Costello, Professor of Respiratory Medicine, and his partners at UCD and S3 Connected Health on winning eHealth Innovation of the Year category at the IMDA Irish Medtech Awards. Together they developed Enodatis, a digital clinical support tool for COVID-19.  Enodatis was created in response to the urgent need for a solution that enables hospitals to optimise and scale acute respiratory care during the pandemic.

Compared with other established clinical deterioration scores, the risk assessment function in Enodatis, known as the Covid Critical Care Index (CCCI), has been shown to predict with greater accuracy which COVID-19 patients are most at risk of adverse outcomes. CCCI is highly predictive of the need for patient ICU admission over 24 hours in advance and can estimate future ICU bed demand, facilitating earlier and more effective treatment as well as better resourcing and planning during the COVID-19 outbreak.The Covid critical care component of Enodatis has now been licensed to commercialising partner S3 Connected Health for use national and internationally.

Innovation Awards Winners

Upcoming Quarterly Innovation Workshop December 17th

RCSI and FutureNeuro Win National Award for Epilepsy Research

RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences and FutureNeuro, the SFI centre for neurological diseases at RCSI, have been recognised at the Irish Pharma Industry Awards for their pioneering contributions to epilepsy research and development.The Irish Pharma Industry Awards celebrate the most original and innovative individuals and companies that demonstrate excellence in the Irish pharma industry.A team led by Professor David Henshall and FutureNeuro Funded Investigator Dr Cristina Reschke earned the Research and Development Award for pioneering microRNA therapeutics for the treatment of epilepsy and their sustained industry engagement and commercialisation of this research.

Professor Fergal O’Brien Wins SFI 2020 Science Award for Partnership with Integra LifeSciences

Spectral MD and RCSI to Advance Care for Chronic Wounds

Spectral MD and RCSI SWAT Centre have entered a collaboration to investigate the clinical potential of Spectral MD’s DeepView technology in the assessment of chronic wounds. Chronic wounds, such as Diabetic Foot Ulcers (DFU), afflict millions of patients globally every year. These wounds not only have the potential to develop gangrene and lead to amputation, but they also come at an extreme cost to the healthcare system. Early and accurate diagnosis is key to improving outcomes and healing rates.

Spectral MD is a healthcare technology company that has developed proprietary optics and AI algorithms to accurately assess the healing potential of DFUs and burn wounds. Marc Dudek, Director of Corporate Development for Spectral MD, stated “We are delighted to partner with such a highly regarded institution. The RCSI SWaT Research Center are globally-recognized leaders in wound care. Working in partnership with the Center and RCSI’s Office of Research and Innovation, we have successfully navigated the development of this relationship that harnesses our collective expertise. Their knowledge of wound care trends in the EU demonstrates that they are the right clinical partners for Spectral MD as we look to expand our operations beyond the United States.”

GE Healthcare and Prof. Afif El-Khuffash Collaborate on Research Study

GE Healthcare have entered a collaboration with Prof. Afif El-Khuffash, Consultant Neonatologist, Rotunda Hospital for a study entitled “Left Ventricular Deformation Assessment in Neonates: A Comparison Between Automated Function Imaging and EchoPAC Clinical Workstation Software”. Deformation imaging of the left (LV) and right (RV) ventricle in neonatal intensive care is an area of increasing interest. The aim of this study is to determine the feasibility, reproducibility and validity of AFI-derived LV longitudinal strain when compared with offline analysis of deformation using EchoPAC software in preterm and term infants.  The use of this technique  in neonatal intensive care medicine is likely to contribute to improving overall clinical care provision.

Alan Hibbitts Successful Commercialisation Fund Application

Congratulations to Dr Alan Hibbitts, RCSI School of Anatomy, on being awarded a Commercialisation Fund grant of €500k by Enterprise Ireland to further develop his technology ‘HyaGlauc’. HyaGlauc is a bioactive implantable medical device for the treatment of Glaucoma which incorporates several novel structural and physicochemical features to accelerate healing and improve outcomes for Glaucoma patients undergoing interventional procedures such as trabeculectomy and shunt implantation.

This Commercialisation Fund will be used to support in vivo proof of concept studies and validate a regulatory strategy and business model for an RCSI spin-out company to bring the technology to the international market. The ORI has supported Alan throughout his commercialisation journey with HyaGlauc beginning with his successful SFI TIDA application in 2017 to develop the initial prototype.

The ORI subsequently supported Alan in identifying and patenting the core Intellectual Property for HyaGlauc and conducting a commercial feasibility study funded by Enterprise Ireland, through which Alan and the ORI worked with an external consultant and multiple industry partners to validate the market potential of the technology prior to the successful application to the main Commercialisation Fund.

 Inaugural RCSI and Trinity Innovation Showcase

The first RCSI and Trinity Innovation Showcase took place virtually on Nov 19th to great success. The day involved showcasing 10 spin out opportunities for Investors, Entrepreneurs and Industry across ICT, Life Sciences, MedTech and Engineering from the RCSI and Trinity Pipelines.

Presenting opportunities from RCSI were ChemoGel (Helena Kelly), TympanoColl (Cian O’Leary) and InnovoSep (Steve Kerrigan).

Additional RCSI licensing and partnering opportunities were listed in an online marketplace associated with the event.

The Agenda included:

• Overview of RCSI and Trinity Knowledge Transfer Consortium
• Welcome address – Prof. Jürgen Barkhoff, Vice-Provost TCD
• Keynote Address – Mr. Ciaran Meghen, Director IdentiGEN (TCD Spin-out)
• Showcase of Trinity and RCSI Spin-Out Opportunities introduced by Fergal O’Brien (Director of Research, RCSI) and Aoife Gallagher (Head of Innovation, RCSI)
• Virtual 1-2-1 Partnering Event

RCSI and Trinity were delighted with the success of this debut event with over 252 registered attendees from 10 different countries and 97 partnering meetings scheduled on the virtual platform.

We look forward to building on this year’s success and partnering with Trinity again for the Innovation Showcase 2021.

Consultancy Survey

The ORI in conjunction with the Quality Office will be performing a survey of research, academic and professional staff at RCSI to ascertain the level of external consultancy activity with a view to investigating the possibility of further supporting this activity.

Consultancy, which can be defined broadly as the transfer or application of knowledge to address an external client’s specific articulated need – applying academic expertise can have many benefits to those involved including:

• Apply your unique expertise in a real-world context
• Build relationships with external organisations – future opportunities
• Gain commercial insights that can inform research and teaching
• Generate funding streams

The survey will be sent by email from the Quality Office in January and participation is very much appreciated.

Funding Opportunities