Breathing monitor gives Cork-based start-up oxygen to accelerate

When a person is very ill a change in their breathing pattern can be a vital indication of a deterioration in their condition. Currently the main method for assessing change is human observation. RespiraSense, a new medical device from Cork-based start-up PMD Solutions, aims to support this skill this with smart-monitoring technology.

RespiraSense is a discrete sensor pad patients wear on the chest. It monitors breathing continuously and alerts medical practitioners if irregularities are detected. The product has just received its CE mark certification and is about to go on sale in the European Union. Distribution agreements for Asia and the Middle East are being set up.

RespiraSense was developed by mechanical engineer Myles Murray, who began working on the idea as a final- year project while studying at Cork Institute of Technology (CIT). The solution won him CIT's entrepreneur of the year award in 2011 and a place on the New Frontiers high-potential start-ups programme run by the Rubicon Centre, CIT's business innovation hub.

Murray has also participated in the Venture Lab technology accelerator programme run by the National Digital Research Centre.

“Our vision is to create a new industry standard in patient breathing monitoring while delivering a measurable economic benefit to the healthcare community,” he says.

“The idea behind the product was to support a shift from interventional therapy to preventative monitoring. This shift is happening in healthcare systems all over the world and is being driven by an on going need to reduce adverse events and associated costs.”

The inspiration for RespiraSense came when he was introduced to Stephen Cusack, professor of emergency medicine at University College Cork.

“Stephen, who has since become our clinical director, explained how difficult it is to accurately measure patient breathing,” says Murray.

“He was seeing people in the A&E with chest tightness and breathing difficulties and it was a continual challenge to monitor their breathing. I discovered this was a worldwide problem for clinicians and, given that respiratory rate has been shown to be the earliest and foremost indicator of a problem, I felt a solution needed to be found.”

RespiraSense provides continuous breathing monitoring based on objective measurements. It is suitable for a broad spectrum of patients in all clinical environments and is very user friendly. The product is aimed at the global market with hospital acute medical units as the initial target.

"We partnered with Irish medical devices company Gentian Services in Co Clare to develop the product and this was invaluable," says Murray.

“It enabled lower development costs and the establishment of a world class supply chain that can deliver small- scale products at a competitive price while also being capable of high volume manufacturing. RespiraSense is the first of a pipeline of products to be launched over the next year.”

PMD, which employs 10 people, is not without competition from multinationals and smaller companies. Murray believes RespiraSense ticks more boxes, however: “It is competitively priced, easier to use than existing systems, has broad rather than niche applications and is robust enough not to be influenced by any patient movement.”

Investment in PMD to date has been about €650,000, which has come from personal funds, angel investors and the South Cork local enterprise office. The company has also received support from the Rubicon Centre, Enterprise Ireland and the National Digital Research Centre.

“RespiraSense has been three years in development and we believe our timing is very good. Our market is really only emerging and is estimated to be worth about €2 billion by 2020,” says Murray.