Challenge
In urgent and stressful medical situations doctors have difficulty to take in all relevant information and instantaneously make the best decisions based on that data. Therefore, medical protocols are unwillingly violated and care for the patient often becomes suboptimal. A delivery is a stressful situation where during resuscitation in 15-45% of cases steps in the protocol can be missed by the neonatologist with potentially serious consequences.
Opportunity
Smart software and augmented reality can provide real time clinical decision support in these situations. In the case of delivery, 10% of the newborns needs some help and 1% needs a lot of help. In the Netherlands alone this 1% accounts for 2000 babies per year that would benefit the most from optimized care. Naturally, every newborn deserves a thriving start and every neonatologist should have the tools to deliver the best care possible.
The global resuscitation market is €500 million. The total Neonatal Intensive Care market is expected to reach over $8B by the end of 2024. The clinical decision support system market is expected to reach $1.8B by 2023 from $1B in 2018.
Solution
An algorithm that can think ahead based on the actual vital parameters of the newborn and presents the steps for the doctor to take. These elements can be projected in a 3D hologram above the patient (or other modality), in the field of vision of the doctor. All advice and actions are also verbalised, which will strengthen the communication with the team.
Status
The ARNE product has already been demonstrated to be highly effective for training neonatologists to improve their performance in emergency situations. Further validation and commercialisation will be possible in the short term. The next step in product development is clinical application to improve current care. Artificial intelligence will be used for improving future care with protocol enhancements and developing a product that will provide decision support for individualised treatments. In addition to neonatal care, the system is useful in other urgent and stressful situations.
Meet the team
Tim Antonius
Inventor
Mendal Ottow
Co-inventor
Taco van der Feltz
Venture Partner at NLC
Taco joined NLC in 2015 and is a highly international and networked entrepreneur trained as Medical Doctor and Medical Biologist. He is a visionary strategist conversant within and across disciplines. As Venture Partner, Taco focuses on building innovative companies and strengthening NLC’s abilities to bring innovations to healthcare.