Healthy Aims is a European programme with €16m from the
European Commission's Sixth Framework fund which is looking at
using technology, particularly implanted devices, to improve
health.
"It aims to develop a range of implants and measurement methods
to improve the health of people, mostly the disabled," says Dr.
Diana Hodgins of European Technology for Business (ETB), who heads
the programme.
The idea for Healthy Aims came out of an earlier part-EC-funded
project: NEXUS (Network of Excellence in µ-systems).
NEXUS includes user-supplier collaborative clubs, including
automotive, pharmaceutical and telecom clubs, set-up to connect
technology suppliers and end-users, says Hodgins, who pulled
together a 'medical devices' user club to add to the list two and a
half years ago.
"The club was running for six months when I heard the call under
the Information Society Technology section of Framework Six to look
at microsystems," she says. "I went to the user supply club and
asked if anybody was interested in a new project."
Enthusiasm for medical implants was strong and, nine months
later, a proposal was submitted for Sixth Framework funding. "We
were told we had the funding in July last year and Healthy Aims was
started on December 1st."
Although it is early in the programme's four-year term, some
significant work is already under way.
"IIP-Technologies in Germany is answering fundamental questions
in the early research phase of a retinal implant project," says
Hodgins. IIP has impressed external investors enough to attract
€4.5m of venture funding to add to its €1.6m from
Healthy Aims.
Cochlear implants are another device under investigation. "Two
out of three Cochlear implant companies in the world are in
Europe," says Hodgins, "and we have one of the two in Healthy Aims
- Cochlear Technology Centre from Belgium."
A next-generation cochlear implant is one of the projects
expected to produce something close to a product by the end of the
programme. "The improved cochlear implant should be ready to go to
market," says Hodgins.
Products are the aim of the programme. "At the end we expect to
see some projects in this state and some in early pilot trials. We
are trying to avoid developments that don't lead to a product."
This said, collaboration is the name of the game and some
programme members will only be developing an element of another
organisation's product. Bio-compatible materials are one case.
"There are very few bio-materials available and anything we develop
could be offered for future products," says Hodgins.
Queen Mary and Westfield College at the University of London,
and the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne could both have
portfolios of new bio-compatible material in four years time as a
result of co-operative development and testing with other programme
members.
Bio-fuel-cells could also get a boost, with IMTEK (Institute of
Microsystem Technology) in Germany and Spain's Universitat Rovira I
Virgili looking at ways to power implants over the long term.
Existing bio-fuel-cells, all experimental, produce only minute
amounts of power. "We need an order of magnitude improvement," says
Hodgins, "but at least we know how much to aim for because it is
others in the programme that use it."
In the nearer term, battery company Saft has joined, looking to
improve more conventional re-chargeable cell technology for in-body
use.
As well as managing Healthy Aims, Hodgins' ETB is working on its
own implant technology. "We are developing a sphincter sensor, for
the oesophagus first, but all sphincters are similar," she says. "I
can't say how we are doing it, but ours is not using a conventional
pressure sensor system."
There is also a movement sensor for limb control combining an
accelerometer from ETB and gyros from other programme
members.
To go with the sphincter sensor, ETB is developing an automatic
valve to replace the urethral sphincter. "It will be a true
intra-urethral sphincter," says Hodgins. "It has to be automatic
because some people do not have the intellectual capability to
operate this kind of thing manually."
The idea is to process yet-to-be-defined external data to deduce
when bladder opening is appropriate. The valve will be opened by
command over a body area network, which Zarlink is working on at
its Monmouthshire site.
In total, there are 26 partners - including six SMEs - from ten
countries in Healthy Aims, with a total budget, including
self-funding, of €26m. "The mix of SMEs and big players in
our Sixth Framework programme is unusual, we are a true
partnership," says Hodgins. "Usually the programmes are started by
big companies and SMEs only get invited in when their technology is
needed."
www.healthyaims.org
Healthy Aims products will include:
Cochlear implants
Retina implant and glaucoma sensors
Functional electrical limb stimulators
Artificial sphincters and sphincter sensors
Implantable intracranial pressure sensors
Inertial human motion sensors
Programme members
Austria:
Universitaet Wien
Belgium:
Cochlear Technology Centre Europe
Interuniversitaire Micro-Elektronica Centrum
France:
The NEXUS Association
Saft
Germany:
Campus Micro Technologies
Hahn-Schickard-Gesellschaft Fuer Angewandte Forschung
IIP-Technologies
IMTEK - Institute of Microsystem Technology
microTEC Gesellschaft fur Mikrotechnologie
VDI/VDE Technologiezentrum Informationstechnik
Israel:
Assuta Medical Centers
Poland:
Instytut Technologii Elektronowej
Spain:
Universitat Rovira I Virgili
Switzerland:
Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne
UK:
Central Research Labs
European Technology for Business
Finetech Medical
Mediplus
Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London
North Bristol NHS Trust
Salisbury District Hospital NHS Trust
TWI
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
University of Salford
Zarlink Semiconductor