New sleep-monitoring device uses Irish med tech

28 May 2012

The wireless sleep-monitoring device

Technology developed at NovaUCD by BiancaMed, a division of the California company ResMed, is being used in a new wireless sleep-monitoring device that Omron Healthcare has just launched in the Japanese marketplace.

BiancaMed itself was originally established by Dr Philip de Chazal, Dr Conor Hanley and Prof Conor Heneghan to commercialise research undertaken in UCD’s School of Electrical, Electronic and Communications Engineering.

Last July the company was acquired by ResMed, the San Diego-headquartered developer of systems to diagnose, treat and manage sleep-disordered breathing such as sleep apnoea and snoring.

All three co-founders are still with the ResMed BiancaMed division at NovaUCD.

Omron Healthcare, a partner of BiancaMed, has just launched a new wireless sleep monitoring device, which uses BiancaMed technology to offer wireless, non-contact sleep monitoring in Japan. The device also connects to healthcare support services in Japan.

The device’s non-contact sensing technology apparently measures sleep throughout the night and can report sleep-quality metrics.

“Insufficient sleep in itself may be an indicator of another underlying problem, sleep-disordered breathing, which is known to cause and negatively impact heart disease, diabetes, stroke and, more recently, cancer,” said Hanley, the managing director of ResMed BiancaMed division at NovaUCD.

BiancaMed employs 35 people at its NovaUCD base.

Carmel Doyle was a long-time reporter with Silicon Republic

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