Glanum Diagnostics: home ECG monitoring

Cardiovascular diseases remain the number 1 cause of death globally, being responsible for a staggering 31% of all deaths. Inge Sieben, CEO of Dutch start-up, Glanum Diagnostics, attempts to turn the tide by developing a novel small electrocardiogram patch for home monitoring. This innovation provides cardiac patients the ability to receive accurate measurements of their heart health from the comfort of their own home.

The HeartService project received a €50,000 grant from the Horizon 2020 SME Instrument Phase 1 programme, which supports R&D performing SMEs in early stages. Winning this competitive grant is a testimony to both the technology and business case presented by Glanum Diagnostics in their proposal. Catalyze was able to assist Glanum  in getting their plans on paper in a clear and well-illustrated manner whilst managing the tight deadline. The following interview with Glanum Diagnostics CEO Inge Sieben provides insight into her business, the collaboration with Catalyze and how the grant has helped in growing her business.

“It would have been extremely challenging to write a quality proposal ourselves in such a short time. I am happy we did this with Catalyze.” – Inge Sieben summarizes the collaboration with Catalyze.

Glanum Diagnostics

Home ECG monitoring presents a promising solution to strained healthcare systems. However, patients face long waiting times before being visited by a medical specialist and must make multiple trips themselves to a healthcare institution. Moreover, the existing ambulatory Holter system used for ECG data collection has just a 20% chance of detecting cardiac events and there are sometimes lengthy delays between measurement, analysis, and diagnosis. Glanum Diagnostics’ ECG patch provides the solution: patient friendly usage, the potential to record for multiple days, and affordability. Also, Glanum will offer the infrastructure required to collect and distribute the patch, promising less waiting time to receive the patch and for the data to be analyzed.

The award provided a boost to Glanum’s plans

This grant was an important steppingstone for Glanum, as plans for expansion are in progress. Inge says, “The SME Phase 1 enabled us to perform a feasibility study in different countries within Europe. From this, a list of countries has emerged that we will use to expand internationally once we are ready to move abroad.”

It helped Glanum Diagnostics to make informed decisions regarding their business plan and reimbursement strategies for different EU countries. Belgium and Germany are now selected as the first foreign countries to which Glanum would like to expand.

Moving forward in their vision

Glanum aims to reduce healthcare costs with their two-pillar approach. Inge explains, “On the one hand, we are developing a novel device that enables easy ECG monitoring from home. On the other hand, we are launching independent treatment centers to provide healthcare to these cardiac patients.”

Glanum makes use of dedicated cardiologists for ECG analysis, providing an edge over other companies providing ECG services that may be less qualified to do so. Currently, Glanum is rolling out their business in the Netherlands, as they are moving from start-up to scale-up.

Today Glanum is offering a Home 24 and 48 hour Holter service to General Practitioners. GPs apply the Holter device whereafter patients are monitored in their home situation. Within a few days the Glanum cardiologists communicate the result of the test with the GPs.

“Our own developed Holter ECG patch has now received CE certification and we are preparing for market launch!” says Inge.

Preparing the winning application

Preparation of the grant application was characterized by the tight schedule in which it had to be completed to make the deadline. Regardless, the process progressed smoothly. We asked Inge how she experienced working with Catalyze:

“Our collaboration with Catalyze was a very pleasant experience and progressed very smoothly. We were on a tight schedule, which was very clearly coordinated by the lead consultant. She understood the information I provided very rapidly and was able to translate it into clear descriptions in the proposal. I was especially pleased that the lead consultant was able to view the piece through the eyes of the reviewer to improve the quality of the proposal.”

Catalyze is proud to have supported Glanum with their successful application.

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