FDA

Since its launch in 2017, Seer Medical has provided at-home monitoring systems for epilepsy patients in Australia. The approval of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration means that the company can now expand to the United States.

There are currently over 65 million epilepsy patients around the world. A diagnosis of epilepsy usually requires multiple tests in either hospital as it is difficult to identify the starting point of seizures in the brain. The process is particularly cumbersome in the U.S. which is why the machine is of great significance to the American market.

The system which is called the Seer Home system is a combination of a monitoring machine and wearable device that records both the electroencephalograph (EEG) readings of brain activity and electrocardiogram (ECG) readings from the heart. The device is able to do so with the help of electrodes that are attached to the chest and forehead and connected to the patient’s shoulders and head for support. 

The device is good news, especially for patients looking for long-term monitoring options to confirm their diagnosis as it can track the wearer’s health for up to a week. In addition to this patients no longer have to step outside the comfort of their homes for this as the device can be worn at home.

Seer Home operates by collecting data from the electrodes and transferring it to the attached hub. The hub is not just used to store EEG and ECG readings but is also armed with cameras to collect footage of the patient’s movements. This supplemented by the data collected by electrodes provides health care providers with additional information about their patients’ ailments. Additionally, the AI can also look for possible triggers for the conditions after sifting through the collected data. The main aim of the company is to improve diagnostic accuracy for epilepsy and other neurological conditions.

Once the week-long monitoring period is over, the equipment is returned to the company which then shares it with a physician so that they may compile an annotated report which can be shared with a referring doctor to come to a more accurate diagnosis for the patient.

According to the company’s CEO, Dr, Dean Freestone, “Seer has proved its effectiveness in the Australian market and created a pathway for patients that is free from the hassle of constant hospital stay, doctors can now get the data they need to make an accurate diagnosis without trouble and we are excited to bring this discovery to America.”

The company was able to gain FDA’s approval only after successfully completing stateside trials conducted by the Mayo Clinic and is now seeking partnerships with hospitals and other healthcare institutions to make their machine more accessible to the plethora of epilepsy patients. Earlier this year, Seer also joined Mayo’s Platform Accelerate program which offers clinical and regulatory developmental support to AI-centric startups.

Seer, however, is not the only player in the market. Ceribell and Epitel have also come up with their own EEG monitoring devices in the last few years to facilitate diagnosis for neurological patients and do detect seizures respectively. 

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