Innovation Awards finalist: CergenX technology offers fast brain-injury assessment in babies

Wave helps identify newborns in need of extra support or treatment, with the aim of reducing the impact of brain injury on their lives

Innovation of the year award finalist: CergenX chief technical officer Sean Griffin, CEO Jason Mowles, and Prof Geraldine Boylan, chief scientific officer
Innovation of the year award finalist: CergenX chief technical officer Sean Griffin, CEO Jason Mowles and Prof Geraldine Boylan, chief scientific officer

Most of the time, when a baby is born everything goes smoothly. But for some babies, complications can lead to brain injury, hard-to-detect seizures and even problems in later life.

CergenX is the company behind a new, easy-to-use brain-monitoring technology called Wave, which helps identify newborns in need of extra support or treatment, with the aim of reducing the impact of brain injury on their lives.

Wave is non-intrusive; it involves placing sensors on the baby’s head and monitoring EEG signals for 10 minutes. The data wings its way to the cloud, where it is analysed by CergenX’s AI, and within seconds the results are back, clearly highlighting whether the results showed any abnormal findings, so medical teams can make important decisions quickly.

The Wave technology emerged from research carried out at the Infant Centre at University College Cork, and CergenX CEO Jason Mowles wants to see it benefit babies around the world.

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“Currently, interpreting brain function requires highly specialised skills that most hospitals don’t have,” he says. “Wave changes this by enabling all healthcare professionals – not just specialists – to conduct advanced brain function assessments in minutes, bringing essential expertise to every hospital and every newborn.”

Claire O'Connell

Claire O'Connell

Claire O'Connell is a contributor to The Irish Times who writes about health, science and innovation