A new EU funded €5 million H2020 project aims to develop a silicon photonics mobile diagnostic device to identify and characterize different stages of cardiovascular diseases (CVD), including detection of stenosis and heart failure.
Led by research institute imec and Ghent University, together with Medtronic and other project partners, the H2020 project, InSiDe, will look at a path to commercializing and manufacturing the prototype device built as part of the previous CARDIS (CARdiovascular disease Detection with Integrated Silicon Photonics) project. The CARDIS project, which received around €3.6 million funding under H2020, resulted in lab validation in 2017 of a first demonstrator mobile, low-cost silicon photonics integrated laser vibrometer.
According to the World Health Organization, cardiovascular diseases are the number one cause of death globally, associated with almost 18 million deaths annually. As part of early diagnosis and intervention, monitoring changes in blood flow can be indicative of abnormalities in the way the heart contracts to pump blood as well as of changes in arterial diameter or elasticity – all potential indicators of cardiovascular disease. The EU-funded InSiDe project is developing a hand-held laser Doppler interferometer exploiting silicon photonics and efficient algorithms to deliver real-time signal analysis of selected cardiovascular parameters. This low-cost monitoring device is expected to fill an unmet need with important implications for patients and healthcare systems.
“The InSiDe project has been triggered by the remarkable outcome of the H2020 project CARDIS. Together with the CARDIS project partners, we developed a prototype mobile, affordable, point-of-care screening device for CVD. The device enables fast and reliable measurement of CVD-related biophysical signals through minimal physical contact with the patient and minimal skills from the operator,” said Roel Baets, group leader at imec and professor at Ghent University. “The objective of the InSiDe project is to take this CARDIS prototype device a major step further towards proven medical relevance and towards commercialization.”