Dr Conor Hanley, Co-founder & CEO, BiancaMed
BiancaMed the UCD medical technology spin-out company is one of 17 companies and organisations shortlisted for the Irish Times Innovation Award 2010. Over 280 companies and organisations initially registered for the awards.
BiancaMed, founded in 2003, currently employs 20 people and is headquartered in NovaUCD, the Innovation and Technology Transfer Centre at UCD. The company has developed and is marketing SleepMinder™, an accurate, contactless and convenient device for the measurement of sleep and breathing in the home.
BiancaMed is one of three companies which have been shortlisted in the Product and/or Service innovation category.
The core of BiancaMed’s proprietary technology is a sensitive radio frequency motion sensor that can detect respiration and movement without being connected to the human body. The sensor incorporates sophisticated biometric software that converts the motion data into a measurement of sleep. The SleepMinder™ technology was initially developed at UCD's School of Electrical, Electronic and Mechanical Engineering by Prof Conor Heneghan and Dr Philip de Chazal.
In 2005 BiancaMed launched its first clinical product in collaboration with Del Mar Reynolds Medical for sleep apnoea screening. This FDA cleared product is currently sold in the United States, Argentina, Ireland, UK and US.
Last year BiancaMed received an additional €6 million in funding led by pan-European venture capital firm Seventure Partners with existing investors ePlanet Ventures, Enterprise Ireland and ResMed. BiancaMed, which also has an office in Sunnyvale, California, is currently working with several major corporations to launch a range of consumer products in 2010. This includes Bianca Baby, which uses a motion sensor to monitor a baby’s sound, movement and sleep. In addition, BiancaMed is developing a sleep apnoea diagnostic product and the company has launched a sleep monitoring service.
The Irish Times Innovation Award was established in association with InterTradeIreland to recognise the best Innovators in Ireland and companies and organisations, small, medium or large, based on the island of Ireland, were invited to promote their innovations by entering this the first all-island Innovation in Business awards.
The six category winners and the overall 'innovator of the year' will be announced at an event to be held on March 24 2010.
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