Prolira developed together with Van Merkerk and Willems a scan that helps to detect and monitor a delirium faster and more effectively

Rutger van Merkerk and Annemarie Willems developed together with Prolira a scan that helps to detect and monitor a delirium faster and more effectively.

What: DeltaScan
Who: Rutger van Merkerk (44) and Annemarie Willems (55)
Challenges: Hospitals
Since: 2015
Employees: 15
Funding: 14 miljoen euro 
Website: prolira.com

De Utrechtse startup Prolira is een spin-off van UMC Utrecht, waar Rutger van Merkerk jarenlang werkte voor een innovatie-afdeling. Binnen het ziekenhuis werd ontdekt dat dankzij een EEG (hersenscan) met slechts drie elektroden en binnen anderhalve minuut een delirium kon worden vastgesteld. Dat is veel sneller en makkelijker dan de tot dan toe gangbare methode. 

Revolutionary healthcare innovation

Why keep the revolutionary healthcare innovation within the Utrecht university hospital? Van Merkerk seized the opportunity to turn this discovery into a product via a start-up he founded with Willems, who specialises in marketing medical innovations.

That product is the DeltaScan, a device that enables nurses to detect and monitor acute brain failure faster and more effectively. The device recognises brain activity data quickly and reliably using an AI algorithm. 

‘Acute brain failure, or acute encephalopathy in medical terms, affects more than ten million hospital patients every year,’ says Willems. ‘It leads to a higher risk of dementia and death, longer hospitalisation and high healthcare costs. Until recently we only had subjective checklists to detect this condition: questionnaires that nursing staff asked patients to fill in, often while in intensive care. Our DeltaScan is the first objective measurement tool for bedside use, and easy to perform by nurses. That’s what makes us so unique.’‘Acuut breinfalen, in medische termen acute encefalopathie en delirium, treft wereldwijd meer dan tien miljoen ziekenhuispatiënten per jaar’, zegt Willems. ‘Het leidt tot hogere kans op dementie en sterfte, langer ziekenhuisverblijf en hoge zorgkosten. Tot nu toe waren er alleen subjectieve checklists om het op te sporen: vragenlijsten die de verpleging aan patiënten moesten voorleggen terwijl ze vaak op de ic lagen. Onze DeltaScan is het eerste objectieve meetinstrument, gemakkelijk te gebruiken door verpleegkundigen, aan het bed. Dat maakt ons uniek.’

Hospitals use the DeltaScan

Prolira's innovation has been favourably received on the market. One hospital chain is already using the DeltaScan in a project entitled ‘Innovative approach to delirium care’. More than 25 hospitals in the Netherlands, Germany, Austria and England are using the device from Utrecht.

Willems tells an anecdote to illustrate how important it can also be to establish that a person is not having a delirium. ‘A not very young man from Germany was in hospital with unexplained complaints. As he kept babbling unintelligibly, the doctors and nurses thought he was having a delirium. But when they did a quick DeltaScan measurement the result was negative, so he could not be suffering from brain failure or a delirium. It turned out the man was speaking in an old German dialect that they didn’t understand. Eventually they managed to communicate and help him, using a drawing board.’

5 miljoen verse funding

Begin 2022 haalde Prolira 5 miljoen euro groeikapitaal op bij onder meer Borski Fund, ROM Utrecht Region, Holland Capital, Health Innovations en Oost NL. Die groei moet onder meer komen doordat het checken en bijhouden van de staat van de hersenen een routinehandeling wordt in ziekenhuizen.

In addition to Europe, the US could become a second huge market for the medical start-up from Utrecht if the FDA approves the Prolira system. Willems estimates that within five years ‘we'll have a flourishing business not only in Europe, but also in the US.’

Source: mtsprout.nl

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