Enterprise Ireland 'Big ideas' Diarmuid Cahalane Neonatal

Neonatal -- Automated Seizure Detection in the Newborn

A team at UCC has developed a technology called the neonatal seizure detection algorithm which detects seizures in babies who have had a difficult time at birth.

Unlike seizures in older children and adults, seizures in babies often show no physical signs. The only way to detect these seizures is to monitor brain activity with a system called Electroencephalography (EEG). The thing about EEG is that you need special expertise to interpret the results which are displayed on a screen as wave forms and this expertise is not always available. The UCC technology will interrogate the EEG signals and it will tell when a baby is having a seizure. This is vital for the baby's clinical team. A baby that is having a seizure needs to be treated urgently to prevent brain damage.

The unique collaboration between clinicians, scientists, engineers and the nursing team in the neonatal intensive care units and in the engineering department in UCC has developed the most advanced EEG algorithm available in the world for the detection of seizures or fits in the newborn baby. The sensitivity, accuracy and reliability significantly outperform the competitive technology. A future development of the technology is the 'babylink' project that will allow the remote monitoring of babies in intensive care units.

Presenter: Diarmuid Cahalane, University College Cork
Research Collaborators: Prof. Geraldine Boylan, School of Medicine, University College Cork
Dr. Liam Marnane, Dept. of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University College Cork
Business Partner: Diarmuid Cahalane, Open Innovation Partners

Category:

Science & Technology

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• Enterprise
• Ireland
• 'Big
• ideas'
• Diarmuid
• Cahalane
• Neonatal
• Software Tutorial
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• Automated
• Seizure
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• in
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• Newborn