Motivation

The World Health Organization (WHO) describes telemedicine or e-Health as the use of technology related to informatics and telecommunication directed to provide a positive effect on the patient’s health status. The goals of telemedicine are to (1) improve access to health care for remote areas, (2) provide physicians with better tools for virtual consultation, (3) allow physicians to conduct remote assessments, (4) reduce healthcare costs, (5) provide health-care services to a wider geographic region and or population, (6) improve diagnostics and monitoring, and (7) reduce the need to transport patients to care facilities. It has been estimated that Telehealth utilization has increased at levels 38X higher than before the pandemic. As well as investments in virtual health continue to accelerate. The total venture capital investment into the digital health space in 2021 totaled $29.2 billion, which was more than all of the investments in 2020 and 2019 together ($22 billion). It’s estimated that this trend will continue during 2022 and 2023. Funding for digital health solutions monitoring disease rose from eighth to the third most funded at the national level.

Description

This project plans to build a remote monitoring system for electrical brain activity (EEG). I will create a telemedicine platform capable of monitor, store, stream and display brain activity to a centralized location, allowing healthcare and research professionals to continually asses in real-time the current condition of a patient. This particular work will bring state of the art technology to remote monitoring and diagnostics. A field that started to show great potential after the events of the past couple of years, in which in-person medical evaluation has faced many challenges. And more importantly, for patients who are vulnerable and require special care.

Healthcare benefits

• Physicians ability to monitor from any mobile device at any time.
• Promote preventive care and potential visits to an emergency room.
• Multiple professionals accessing the data in real-time.
• Allow healthcare institutions and clinics to benefit from the cost-effective nature of the platform.
• Continue to push innovation in the United States as a front-runner country in telemedicine programs.

Research benefits

• Collaborative platform to interact directly with data and biomarkers.
• Central repository for setting up experiments and cataloging subjects accordingly.
• Data availability to researchers around the world.
• Leverage the power of cloud computing to implement analysis protocols.

Strategy

In order to achieve success with the platform, I will build it using my experience in real-time data applications in addition to my research work in neuroscience. Also, being exposed to various startups gives me the confidence to drive innovation in the health tech field. The project will consist of various phases following an Agile development approach.

• Establish a R&D company focused in the construction of a prototype able to send EEG signals from low-cost devices to a remote server in the Cloud. I’ll leverage my knowledge in mobile applications, data streaming platforms and neuroscience to build a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) with enough functionality that serves as a demo.
• Develop a visual platform that allows exploration and interaction with the data. In this stage, the most important outcome will be to implement an intuitive visual platform able to deliver real-time monitoring and alerts, as well as enough data interaction for researchers and healthcare professionals.
• Open the platform to healthcare institutions, researchers, patients and experts interested in testing the application. Collect feedback to improve features and performance is crucial at this phase of the project. Also, in this stage, marketing materials such as videos, brochures and white papers can be produced.
• Invite investors and potential partners to contribute in the project. Also, continue the development of the platform incorporating feedback from test users and early adopters.
• Depending on the needs from potential clients, a monetization approach will be considered in this stage. A subscription-based, partnership or Pay-as-you-go strategies are potential ideas for this type of platform.

I also intend to support research in neuroscience by expanding the opportunities of remote brain scanning, which can be applicable in other areas of brain & neural research, contributing to advance not only in the healthcare field but also in the research space in the United States, generating a positive national impact with the platform.