Health tech entrepreneur enlists in the fight against vascular disease
Dr Melissa Berthelot, founder and CEO of medical device company WarnerPatch, is working with the Innovation Pop Up to trial her firm’s continuous remote monitoring technology.
It is being trialled with patients and clinicians at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.
Berthelot has invented a wearable sensing mechanism which monitors the health of soft tissue to provide real-time and near-future indications of disease evolution.
It is non-invasive and powered with 5G connectivity, enabling the flow of critical information to clinicians.
WarnerPatch uses artificial intelligence to predict likely outcomes and generates alerts if symptoms get worse.
It has won backing from Innovate UK and the European Regional Development Fund to build a minimum viable product.
With the support of the Innovation PopUp, the company is now finalising product design, addressing regulatory requirements and preparing a pilot project for launch early next year.
Berthelot said: “Our first goal is to target peripheral vascular disease, a progressive, chronic and incurable disease which affects 200 million people around the world and can cause embolism, stroke, pulmonary disorder and renal failure. It’s a gruesome disease.
“Clinicians can use WarnerPatch from the point they suspect the patient has the disease to gather vital data to enhance clinical diagnosis and decision making.
“We anticipate our trial will show that our medical device is acceptable to patients and clinicians and can improve quality of life, reduce emergency admissions and lengths of stay and prevent disease escalation.”
WarnerPatch joined the Innovation Pop Up in 2021 to develop the company and its technology for adoption and spread across the NHS.
The centre is based at the Leeds General Infirmary Gilbert Scott building which is home to a growing community of high-tech start-ups which benefit from access to clinical teams, open-plan work space and tailored business support and resources.
Professor David Brettle, chief scientific officer at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and founder of the Innovation Pop up, said: “We are happy to be working with Dr Berthelot and her team at WarnerPatch to help bring this exciting new product to market.
“Our centre is dedicated to transforming the latest advances in science, technology and engineering into products and services that can solve health and care challenges facing Britain and the rest of the world.”
