Institute for Precision Health
Device and software development
We support the development of devices that assist in rapid and reliable diagnosis of diseases and conditions. A number of early stage projects have received pump prime funding (see below) to develop new devices. We also work closely with the Diagnostics Development Unit, located in the Accident and Emergency Department at Leicester Royal Infirmary, providing opportunities to test novel devices in a real world situation.
Testing LifeMap: a new clinical tool for assessing risk of sudden cardiac death
Sudden cardiac death (SCD) is responsible for 3 million deaths worldwide annually. The majority of these deaths are due to lethal ventricular arrhythmias (VA) which could be averted with implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs). Over 350,000 Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators (ICDs) are implanted per year, at a cost of £83,000 per quality adjusted life year (NICE). Of the ICDs implanted only ~40% are initiated to ‘shock’ the heart to re-establish rhythmicity, but no effective methods are currently available to better predict those individuals that would benefit from ICDs.
Professor André Ng and colleagues are developing a novel non-invasive effective screening test using an exercise ECG that would enable the stratification of individuals within the >32 million people at risk of heart attacks to identify those most likely to benefit from ICD implantation.
LifeMap consists of two parts:
- A LifeMap-VEST worn by the patient designed to produce a clearer ECG signal during the exercise ECG.
- LifeMap-Compute - the computer software that will analyse the ECG signals to identify those likely to benefit from an ICD.
To produce a CE marked system, LifeMap has received MRC Confidence in Concept Funding through Leicester Drug Discovery and Diagnostics (LD3). Additional funding secured through Leicester’s BRC allowed clinical testing of LifeMap in a real world setting, and work with commercial partners to ensure that the LifeMap technology can be effectively transitioned for clinical utility.
In 2023, LifeMap was awarded a NIHR Invention for Innovation (i4i) award to test the LifeMap-VEST with 120 patients across 4 different NHS Trusts. The projects, called LifeMap-QUEST will confirm that the LifeMap-VEST can be reliability performed in different health settings and that patients, and cardiologists have a high degree of satisfaction with the system. QUEST – stands for: Quality assurance, User-focused, Evaluation, Safety and Tolerability.
An important aspect of the LifeMap-QUEST project has been Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) in finalising the LifeMap-VEST design and producing accessible patient information for the clinical trial. Along with the LifeMap-QUEST PPI advisory group, and a local charity South Asian Health Actions, the IPH have supported the project to produce a number of patient videos in different languages to recruitment to the clinical trial in Leicester. The clinical study is due to be completed in December 2026.
The LifeMap concept is currently protected by patents WO2011117608 (granted in China, Japan, Australia, USA, Canada and Europe) and WO2015150831 (granted USA, Japan, Australia, India and Europe, pending in China, and India).