Press ReleasesPrint this page

CIMIT, ST + D Introduce Prototype of Monitoring Device

CIMIT and Sensor Technology + Devices recently reached a major milestone in their promising relationship: ST + D officials have transferred to CIMIT a prototype of a miniaturized, wearable wireless device that could monitor vital signs of patients in traditionally unmonitored low-acuity settings such as hospital waiting rooms or even in homes.

ST + D is a Belfast spin-out of the University of Ulster that has experience in developing medical sensors and wireless systems to monitor a patient’s vital signs, and is collaborating with a team of CIMIT investigators, led by Dr. Nat Sims, of Massachusetts General Hospital, an internationally recognized developer of medical devices.

The goal of the collaboration is to develop a miniaturized patient-worn monitor that will provide information on heart, respiration, temperature and movement. Such a device will use the existing hospital wireless networks to give an immediate indication of change directly to the clinical teams even as patients move around the hospital. The device will be called “Guardian Aingeal,” as “aingeal” is Irish for “angel”.

The development of a prototype signifies progress for this new collaborative team, a dynamic company in Northern Ireland and strategically connected consortium in the Boston area. An innovator in sensor and electrode components for medical devices, ST + D is a world authority in the design of motion tolerant medical measurements. The ST + D team has delivered the prototype, and the CIMIT medical professionals will be supervising development of the promising device.

“It is a great honour and opportunity to work with such influential and thought-leading organizations as CIMIT,” said Michael Caulfield, chief executive officer of ST + D. “They have already greatly informed both clinical trials and integration into the hospital IT networks.”

Dr. Sims said, “This is an ambitious and worthwhile project, and I am pleased to be collaborating with such a talented group.”

CIMIT is the Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology. A non-profit consortium of Boston-area teaching hospitals and engineering schools, CIMIT provides innovators with resources to explore, develop and implement novel technological solutions for today’s most urgent healthcare problems.

Members of the consortium are Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston Medical Center, Boston University, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Children’s Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Newton-Wellesley Hospital, Partners HealthCare and VA Boston Healthcare System.

ST + D’s latest funding round has been led by Belfast-based Clarendon Fund Managers and has been supported by existing investors including Enterprise Equity. Wellcome Trust has also provided significant research funding. Invest Northern Ireland has strongly supported the initiative with CIMIT through both financial support and facilitating high-level meetings in both Belfast and Boston.