ECMO-BIOMARKER

One out of ten ICU respiratory patients are characterised as being “severe”, with a lung function of less than 20% due to acute respiratory failure. This group are often referred to ECMO (Extra Corporal Membrane Oxygenation) treatment, in which the patient’s blood is oxygenized by an external machine, costing European healthcare centres €26Bn+ annually. The problem is, due to the rudimentary tools that ICU doctors use to diagnose these patients, 20% of all ECMO patients should not have been treated with ECMO and instead could have stayed in conventional intensive ventilation care. Industry partner Mermaid Care aims to solve this problem with ECMO-BIOMARKER – the world’s first biomarker-based companion diagnostic tool for severe lung injury patients. ECMO-BIOMARKER will potentially reduce ECMO referrals by 10-20%, slashing costs for the average European ECMO centre by an estimated €23-48M annually. Based on clinically predictive biomarker measurements, ECMO-BIOMARKER uses novel algorithms and physiological model to deliver accurate diagnosis recommendations for each patient, bedside and in less than 2 minutes. This ICT-approach changes workflow and empowers low-skilled ICU doctors to perform ECMO diagnosis. In the proposed action, ECMO-BIOMARKER value proposition (reduction in ECMO patients) will be clinically documented together with 4 world-leading partners in the field of ICU management and ECMO treatment: 3 clinical research partners – Imperial College London with the clinical site Royal Brompton Hospital (UK), Medical University of Vienna (AT) and Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Clermont-Ferrand (FR) – and research partner Aalborg University (DK). After the project, ECMO-BIOMARKER is launched on the EU market, allowing European hospitals to cut ICU costs and improve patient quality of care. This project will allow Mermaid Care to reach sales of €160M in 2025 and hire 30 new employees. The innovation is based on +16 years of research and 10 patents.