Sensors will help detect heart failure in patients

Every second counts when a person has a heart attack. In fact, heart disease can be detected several hours before the patient realises that something is wrong.

For that reason, a researcher has created three different sensors that can measure heart rate, heart activity and respiration.

- I developed the sensors for my PhD project and the original idea was to place them in cars, explains Adrian Radomski, new postdoc in the Spin-out Denmark programme.

- But I’ve spoken to many doctors who say they need the measurements when patients arrive at the hospital, for example when they are sitting in the waiting room of an emergency department or lying in a bed. In this way, doctors can identify heart patients before it is too late to help them.

Nurses should not be disturbed

The sensors are special in that they can measure through clothing, so they can be placed under a cover or a sheet.

This means that they take the necessary measurements without disturbing the patients.

The sensors will be tested at Odense University Hospital, and Adrian Radomski has an important goal: disturbing the nurses as little as possible.

- When you’re doing tests for research, it just has to work a few times and then you can get the necessary knowledge. When you’re selling a product, it has to work all the time and not give too many false alarms. It’s supposed to help healthcare professionals, the researcher explains.

Grandfather’s death gave him the idea

Adrian Radomski came up with the idea of monitoring hearts because he lost his grandfather. He had a heart attack one day while walking down the street. He did not survive.

- It happened when I was 17. If he had had a measuring device, he might have lived. Now I work to help others avoid such a situation. My goal is to make as positive an impact as possible in people’s lives through my research.

That is why the place in the Spin-outs Denmark programme is a great motivation for Adrian Radomski.

It enables him to start his own business based on his research and the sensors. After the test at OUH, the next step is to obtain the certification.

- Research is fantastic, but companies have a greater opportunity to impact people’s lives. Basically, companies are taking research from the lab or workbench into the real world, the researcher says.

SDU researchers start companies

The Spin-outs Denmark programme is open to all researchers who want to start a business based on research in the humanities or the technical, natural and social sciences early in their career.

As part of the programme, Adrian Radomski will receive one year of financial and professional assistance to found his own business.

Before him, Kristian Husum Laursen, Ïo Valls-Ratés, Bhushan Patil and Jesper Puggaard de Oliveira Hansen, Nicolaj Haarhøj Malle and Magnus Jensen have been awarded SDU postdoc positions in the programme.

They work to develop businesses based on research into drones, digital voice training, indoor solar cells, customising production machinery and improving cancer surgery.