Lee Lucas Award: Crainio
For the development of a novel technology that allows the simple, affordable, risk-free and non-invasive measurement of intracranial pressure, a vital indicator of brain health after a head injury.
Crainio is a medical technology (medtech) company spun out to commercialise research at City, University of London. Crainio enables the simple, affordable, risk-free and non-invasive measurement of intracranial pressure (ICP).
ICP is a vital indicator of brain health after a head injury, the leading cause of death among adults under 40. Currently, the only way to directly measure ICP is for a neurosurgeon to drill a burr hole in the patient’s skull and place an expensive probe in the brain. This highly invasive procedure is slow to access taking place outside the ’golden hours’ immediately after an accident. It is expensive, requiring access to scarce neurosurgery resources, and carries risks of infection, bleeding, and other complications.
Crainio’s technology eliminates these risks, enabling direct measurement of ICP through a simple non-invasive probe applied to the forehead. The technology - using infrared photoplethysmography (PPG) combined with machine learning - is based on years of research and development work conducted by Professor Panicos Kyriacou and his team at the Biomedical Engineering Research Centre at City, University of London.
Good levels of accuracy have been demonstrated in clinical studies conducted at the Royal London Hospital. Crainio’s initial market is as a triaging tool to be used in the neurotrauma ward but will be rapidly moving to markets earlier on in the care pathway to be nearer the scene of the accident. To this end, they will be providing their technology to accident and emergency units and first responders such as ambulances and air ambulances.
