Gabi SmartCare
Gabi SmartCare decreases infant death and paediatric hospitalisations by combining remote medical monitoring tool and predictive digital analytics to alert parent in case of danger during sleep, while providing physicians with unique data to enable reliable diagnosis, improve treatment efficiency and anticipate complications. Gabi SmartCare ambitions to become the world's leading provider of outpatient predictive respiratory monitoring solutions. Supported by Johnson & Johnson.
Respiratory disease is one of the main causes of death under 5 years old, is responsible for more than 30% of all paediatric hospitalisations and affects 270 million children worldwide every year. Despite being a priority for WHO and international societies, respiration diseases keep increasing, remain largely under-diagnosed and poorly managed. It is also considered as one of the main burdens as it puts a $120B direct cost on the healthcare systems.
This is due to lack of trustable data for that group of age. Existing diagnosis tests are not suitable for young children which, according to medical surveys, makes diagnosis lasting up to 3 years for more than 20% of that population, with up to 40% of diagnosis errors, creating more and stronger exacerbations. This results in late diagnosis and unsuitable treatment which, according to medical publication, increases risk of death and provokes 3 times more ED visits and hospitalisations.
Remote medical grade monitoring solutions showed important reduction in adult ER visits and hospitalisations, but no such tool exists for young children. The GSC’s developed solution is a class II medical device that monitors children vital signs (Heart rate, SpO2, Respiratory rate) via a wearable band, alerts parents in case of life threatening event during sleep through a mobile app and provides healthcare professionals (HCP) with data history and abnormal events detection through a dedicated web platform.
GSC’s monitoring solution has multiple domains of medical applications (respiratory, sleep disorders, chronic conditions, cardiac, post-hospitalisation, etc.). Gabi SmartCare ambitions to become the world's leading provider of outpatient predictive paediatric monitoring solutions, with a first area of interest in respiratory disease.
To efficiently reduce that burden, GSC works on the one hand, on AI developments to predict patient’s exacerbation to make sure parents provide prompt and adapted medication to avoid short-term complications (hospitalisation and death). On the other hand, GSC’s connected and predictive analytics platform connects parents to HCP providing them with unique data to enable quick and reliable diagnosis, improve treatment efficiency and anticipate long-term complications.
GSC has worked with more than 50 doctors and 1000 parents throughout all the development of the solution (surveys, tests, beta testers over nights, patients tests, etc.) to make sure that the solution matches with the needs of children, parents and HCP. The solution is fitting from premature babies to adults if needed and demonstrated 99% medical accuracy in pre-clinical trials phases. All the developments have 2 major goal: reduce infant hospitalisation/death and improve clinical outcomes.
- Expand access to high-quality, affordable care for women, new mothers, and newborns
The solution developed aimed to decrease the infant mortality from birth to 5 years old. The target population of this challenge is the one of the company. We have built a first solution that is quite costly. To make it available to low-income families, we have 2 alternatives:
1) we want to get the solution reimbursed by insurances
2) in the meantime, we are looking at how we can reduce the cost of production and distribution which are the 2 main ones
- Pilot: An organization deploying a tested product, service, or business model in at least one community
- A new application of an existing technology
To reach its ambition of becoming the world's leading provider of outpatient predictive pediatric monitoring solutions, Gabi SmartCare worked on 3 competitive advantages: 1) A patient centric connected remote solution specifically designed for young children from 0 to 5 years old, offering a comfortable and non-invasive way of monitoring vital parameters on a daily basis and using specific algorithms dedicated to young and growing children and capable of alerting users in case of life threatening event during sleep. This aspect of the solution is under Patent Pending. 2) The solution offers a specific combination of medical grade vital parameters (Heart rate, Respiratory rate and SpO2). Thanks to the technology used, other parameters can be obtained (blood pressure, temperature, activity level, movement, position, etc.). 3) It will be the 1st remote monitoring solution dedicated to early childhood medically certified (MDIIb/FDA approved). To preserve its competitive advantages, Gabi SmartCare is already working on further competitive advantages based on advanced predictive (exacerbation) and diagnosis algorithms. These projects are based on data collected from hospitals as well as on GSC’s proprietary device. Diagnosis algorithms outcomes will be: an abnormal pattern detection, a respiratory digital biomarker enabling daily disease control assessment, and the parameters’ correlation to enable symptoms monitoring.
The wearable band is using the oximetry technology in a reflective way enabling the solution to be more comfortable than a basic oximeter. Coupled with addional sensors (temperature, movement, etc.), we can detect the Heart rate, the respiratory rate, the temperature, the level of activity and the position of the patient. We developed several proprietary algorithms enabling the solution to fit any patient from preterm to adults. We added wireless connection technology and created interface for both parents and HCP to ensure a real time health monitoring and access.
The solution was tested on 65 patients.
SpO2 tests were performed from 70% to 100% using medical devices as comparison and reached with 99% of accuracy with the medical device (same on heart rate).
- Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning
- Big Data
- Internet of Things
- Software and Mobile Applications
We have developed a reliable monitoring tool enabling us to collect reliable medical parameters comfortably. Working with doctors, we realised that with these data, we could deliver so much value by developing specific diagnosis and predictive algorithms preventing hospitalisation and potentially death by offering early diagnosis. This is why our first focus was on developing an easy to use and confortable solution to ensure it's used as largely as possible. In parallel, we are developing our team or researches to develop additional diagnosis and predictive algorithms based on the data we collect. We are also working with local university to be assisted in these tasks.
- Infants
- Children & Adolescents
- 3. Good Health and Well-Being
- Belgium
- United States
2020: 1500
2021:5000
by 2025: 35.000 is expected.
We want to go through the required clinical trials to certify the solution as a medical device. This is our objective of 2020.
Within 5 years, Gabi SmartCare wants to bring additional services based on diagnosis and predictive algorithms.
We have 1 patent pending and a clear IP strategy to developed addition barrieres to entry.
We are certified ISO 13485.
The product will be medical device class 2.