In line with the wave of medical-tech fusion, BioSerenity, a French startup founded by Pierre Fouin, is revolutionizing early epilepsy detection. Founded in January of 2014, the Paris-based startup has raised over €3 million from Kurma Diagnostics and Idinvest Partners to propel its research and development.
BioSerenity is the first of its kind to develop a system of epileptic diagnosis that you can wear. As technology plays a larger role in our everyday lives, we are consistently becoming more connected via “smart objects.” And clothing is no exception. With companies like First Warning Systems creating a prototype of a bra that can detect breast cancer through thermal dynamic measurement or OMsignal with their smart exercise clothing that uses biometric sensors to measure performance and gives an electrocardiogram (ECG) reading, it is no surprise that innovation is spawning with wearable technology, especially to provide medical benefits.
BioSerenity offers is a tool that provides a method of self-monitoring a potentially fatal, chronic condition. BioSerenity is one of the frontrunners in the revolutionary concept of embedding technology in clothing to help simplify and advance our lives. The concept relies on the patient wearing a specially designed smart shirt and cap that is connected to a phone application. This technology monitors brain activity and sends the accrued data to a cloud system for further analysis. The data collected records the continuous electrical activity of the brain (a process known as electroencephalography). This data can help detect and diagnose epilepsy in a period of a few weeks as opposed to the current detection period, sometimes lasting several years.
For patients and medical experts alike, this sort of advancement presents tremendous benefits for the early detection and eventual treatment of epilepsy. However, the challenges do present themselves: in order to receive accurate data, is a patient required to wear the smart shirt and cap 24 hours a day? Through the advantage of the technology being embedded in the clothing, the clothing too needs to be made to be easily “embedded” and integrated into a patient’s life. Taking into consideration that it is a piece of clothing, how durable is this material against everyday wear, or even against regular washing? The questions still remain to be answered as BioSerenity is only in the early stages of development. Regardless, they are attracting the attention of numerous local Parisian hospitals interested, like Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital. This proves that the union between medicine and the technology that BioSerenity creates helps propel the early diagnosis and treatment of a condition that was once debilitating.