Epilepsy sufferers will have an average of 7 minutes to assume a safe position and to prevent accidents and injuries

October 25, 2018

This morning, Mobile World Capital Barcelona, MJN and Clínica Corachan have presented the results of the clinical assay for testing the validity of the MJN-Seras earpiece, which is a portable technological device that uses Artificial Intelligence to register the brain activity of epilepsy sufferers, to digitalise and to filter it, and to anticipate the clinical manifestation of an epilepsy crisis an average of seven minutes before it occurs.

The clinical trial has involved 22 epilepsy sufferers in the 15 to 46 age range. During the trial, which lasted over 1,500 hours, the brain activity of these patients was monitored and a total of 85 epilepsy crises were detected, in an average detection time of seven minutes prior to the appearance of clinical symptoms and with an average sensitivity of 88%.

MJN-Seras was one of the winning projects of the second challenge of d-LAB, MWCapital’s digital transformation programme, which sought to reward innovative projects and solutions that use and apply personal health data not only for the purposes of access but also for ends that include the management and monitoring of chronic diseases and medical treatments. According to Jordi Arrufí, Director of d-LAB “Projects like that of MJN – Seras are an example of the social impact of MWCapital’s programmes”.

To ensure that d-LAB’s challenges yield real results, the programme facilitates the involvement of partners in implementing the pilot project. In the case of MJN-Seras, the partners were Clínica Corachan, MatSalud and Girona University. Together, they undertook a clinical assay (pilot trial) of the device with real patients in order to determine whether the device is capable of early detection of the risk of a person suffering an epilepsy s. “The results are very positive and validate both the device’s medical application and its social impact. So much so that the product will be launched commercially this October”, stated Arrufí.

“Thanks to MJN-Seras technology, accidents and injuries to epilepsy sufferers can be prevented. To avoid accidents the user receives a visual, vibratory and sound warning prior to the epilepsy crisis”, explained David Blánquez, CEO of MJN. He or she can thereupon assume a safe position and avoid falls and knocks.

The project has served as a springboard for the creation of the Clínica Corachan Epilepsy Unit, a pioneering unit in the private health sector that brings together a multidisciplinary team of professionals. “The unit will offer a comprehensive, personalised service to patients with epilepsy (or who are suspected of having it) with the support of state-of-the-art technological equipment”, stated Dr. Ferran Cachadiña, Healthcare Director of Clínica Corachan. He also asserted that “when MJN asked us to take part in this study we were in no doubt at all that the project is fully aligned with our values and with our way of understanding medicine as a service for society”. Taking such an active part in an assay intended to predict epilepsy crises, reinforces the sometimes forgotten idea that technology has little intrinsic value unless it is applied to improve people’s health and quality of life.