DiPAR
We’re extremely pleased to announce our participation in the DiPAR project.
Our consortium of pan European SMEs and research institutions has won a £1.3 million grant under the European Union Framework Programme 7 – FP7 – to fund the development of a new Life Sciences technology. Avantrasara is Exploitation Manager for the consortium and will lead marketing of the technologies in products and licenses sold to major manufacturers.
DiPAR will use a combination of biomechanics and advanced computing to help doctors diagnose and manage Parkinsons Disease. A device, similar to a pen, will measure patients motor functions and identify patterns associated with the disease. The project commences in January 2011 and is planned to complete before the end of 2012.
Parkinsons Disease affects more than 1 million people across Europe, a number which grows each year as more people are diagnosed. Its a degenerative disease with no known cure. Patients, usually older people, can survive the condition for years but suffer progressive disability. Well known sufferers include Michael J Fox, Muhammad Ali, Enoch Powell and Mao Zedong. Early diagnosis helps doctors to recommend simple exercises, reducing the disability and delaying the need for aggressive drug treatments. However a shortage of qualified neurologists often means diagnosis is delayed until the condition is too advanced for the patient to benefit from non pharmacalogical treatments.
The DiPAR technology will allow accurate diagnosis of more patients by neurologists, and potentially by general practitioners. In the future it may be possible for them to manage the condition remotely, and even monitor patients at home, avoiding the need for expensive and difficult travel to hospitals.
Avantrasara Ltd Director, Steven Reeves, said
“This is a major win for us, for the life sciences sector in the Highlands, for healthcare providers, and most importantly for patients. Early and accurate diagnosis is known to measurably benefit patients. Remote monitoring of the disease will also help patients and their carers cope with the disabilities, enabling more frequent assessment and avoiding travel to hospitals.
DiPAR will, we anticipate, provide us with a global business worth up to £10 millions per year. And this is just the start. We’re involved in a number of other grant applications which, if successful, will develop similar technologies to help with Alzheimers and other neurological diseases. Ultimately we’ll develop consumer products older people can use to exercise both cognitive and motor functions. Its now widely recognised mental and physical activity can maintain their capabilities.
Members of the Consortium
SME’s
- Avantrasara – UK
- Hispafuentes/Abadasoft – Spain
- Inotech – Germany
- Manus Neurodynamics – UK
- Pattern Expert – Germany
Research Institutes
The DiPAR project aims to produce a novel and unique set of equipment supporting the diagnosis and rehabilitation of neuromotor diseases. The preliminary proof-of-principle work in this field has been lead by SME partner Manus, who have reached the point where further work, drawing on wider expertise than is at their sole disposal, is required.
Recognizing the benefits of collaborative and objective driven research, Manus have assembled a vertical supply chain of high-tech SME collaborators, backed by world-leading research base partners to undertake the necessary research and development activities on behalf of the SME partners.
The first concept development of the hand held device will focus on diagnosing and monitoring of PD and Parkinsonism, which are characterised by the same symptoms as detailed in the section below on technological and scientific problems with PD diagnosis. The specific neuromotor deterioration associated with PD/Parkinsonism can be assessed by means of externally measuring a set of biomechanical parameters.
Those specific changes that take place within the nervous system with the development of the pathology are known to some extent. However, in order to establish the proposed system, the knowledge will firstly be extended through clinical research and the development of novel signal processing techniques that are incorporated into a decision support system. The system development for diagnosis of PD/Parkinsonism can then be completed.
There is enormous scope for establishing the system for diagnosis of PD. First, within the UK and other member states of the EU27, many patients with suspected PD do not have timely access to a neurologist. The novel diagnostic system will enable healthcare workers at different levels of health care, who do not have specialist knowledge of movement disorders, to perform a fast and accurate diagnostic procedure.
Secondly, the system will improve accuracy and efficiency of differential diagnosis of movement disorders. In addition, there are indications that early onset PD can be diagnosed before the clinical symptoms have become obvious. For the future, it is anticipated that with extended research, diagnosis of other neurological impairments will become possible and the DiPAR project provides a platform from which further R&D on neuromotor impairments will take
place.
Another application with significant scope is applying the technology within a training and rehabilitation device for a wide range of impairments or general motor skill improvement.
