Researchers Seek to Build Smart Medical Devices to Overcome Care Gaps in Low-resource Environments
Researchers are working on three separate Horizon Europe-funded projects to develop smart medical devices that will enable patients and clinicians to monitor and treat conditions such as migraines, gastroesophageal reflux disease, and perform home dialysis.
Funded as part of an EU initiative to develop smart medical devices for surgical implantation in resource-constrained settings, the TELEGRAFT, TARA, and eCAP projects have collectively been awarded €13.5 million to advance cutting-edge medical technologies that could transform the lives of millions of patients.
Each project shares a common ambition: to leverage smart medical devices for making medical intervention accessible to patients, empowering them to monitor their conditions, share data with healthcare providers, and access treatments that were previously out of reach.
eCAP Project
The eCAP project is developing a diagnostic device for the treatment of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). It encompasses a multisensory capsule and an e-health platform, composed of a mobile application used by the patient and a web platform for clinicians.
The physiological events inside the body are captured by state-of-the art sensors in the capsule and correlated to real time symptoms and events recorded by the patient via the app. The smartphone then transmits capsule data and patient reported data to the cloud where it is further analysed to generate a comprehensive report, including the DeMeester Score – the gold standard for diagnosing GERD. This
enables the clinician to provide an accurate assessment, or review of patient paper diaries, as opposed to current clinical practice
To confirm the solution is universal and can be deployed in low-resource environments, clinical studies are undertaken in three countries with different approaches to GERD testing: France, Ukraine and Kenya.
TELEGRAFT
The TELEGRAFT project aims to revolutionise home dialysis through the development of a smart biomimetic arteriovenous graft. This innovative project significantly enhances healthcare accessibility and affordability by enabling patients to perform dialysis at home, thereby reducing the need for frequent hospital visits and making treatment more convenient for those in remote or underserved areas.
The smart graft is equipped with advanced diagnostic tools, which enable real-time monitoring of blood flow and detection of inflammation or infections. The data will be processed by AI machine learning models and displayed in an easy-to-understand dashboard for healthcare professionals. The data will allow online telemonitoring as well as consultations by remote healthcare professionals. This will make home dialysis safe for patients, even in areas with poor infrastructure, where patients live far from hemodialysis clinics.
The TeleGraft system will be demonstrated in an operational environment through a 2-stage randomised clinical trial enrolling 60 patients at 5 hospitals across Europe (in Denmark, Sweden, Lithuania, Spain, and Germany) and through a home hemodialysis field study.
TARA Project
Researchers working on the Horizon Europe-funded TARA Project are confident that their innovative platform will transform healthcare access for chronic migraine sufferers, and significantly improve the availability of care in underserved regions.
TARA researchers are currently developing the LUNA-Platform, the first neurostimulation medical device to efficiently overcome chronic migraine. The LUNA-PLATFORM has four proprietary components including LUNA-AIR, LUNA-INJECT, TARA-CONTROL and LUNA-APP.
1) LUNA-AIR: An implantable therapeutic, active medical device with integrated sensors to treat neurological indications including migraine.
2) LUNA-INJECT: is a minimally invasive, injectable delivery system, designed specifically to enable non-surgical physician delivery.
3) LUNA-APP: is a controller for LUNA-AIR and a diagnostic visualisation interface for the patient to view their biometric data from their phone.
4) TARA-CONTROL: is a wearable device, with integrated sensors, which delivers wireless power into LUNA-AIR and acts as a communications relay between LUNA-AIR and LUNA-APP.
This 20-minute, minimally invasive injectable procedure is projected to cost a total of €500 and can be administered by nurses in outpatient clinics, dramatically scaling access to this best-in-class treatment.
Competitor procedures cost €25,000–€30,000 and require a 3-hour surgical procedure under general anesthesia, which adds an additional €10,000. By offering a solution that reduces reliance on expensive, inefficient drugs, minimises downtime from work, and enhances overall productivity, the LUNA-Platform is poised to deliver substantial economic and healthcare benefits globally.
