General details
EDIHs involved
Customer
Customer size: Micro (1-9)
Customer turnover: N/A
Challenges
Traqbeat's Technologies PC is a fast-growing SME that specializes in conducting research and development of innovative systems and services. In this sense, TRAQBEAT shows a satisfactory level of digital maturity in comparison with other European SMEs. However, during the process of assessing the digital maturity of the company SmarthHealth identified the necessity to address several requisites. These include, the need to increase the level of technological readiness, the necessity to reduce the environmental impact by improving environmental sustainability and the lack of universal protocol for collecting data and configuring it in order to make it comply with current EU regulations. Additionally, the lack of protective measures and regular information in the field of cyber-attacks, the insufficient training and capabilities of the staff and the necessity to integrate automation and artificial intelligence techniques were necessities to be considered.
Consequently, in order to address these issues and needs TRAQBEAT contacted the European Digital Innovation Hub for Smart Health. The company wanted to address its most basic needs by obtaining a comprehensive picture of their level of digital maturity in comparison with other European SMEs. In addition, TRAQBEAT required the latest market trends, suggestions and knowledge in order to further develop and grow.
The collaboration between the Technical University of Crete (TUC), partner of EDIH SmartHealth, and TRAQBEAT was highly constructive, as they were able to identify the problem and provide the necessary services. Specific guidelines were provided by the University which provided not only a detailed action plan, but also a list of recent techniques and methodologies recommended.
Solutions
To start with, the aim in the first phase was not only to obtain from TRAQBEAT a comprehensive picture of its digital maturity level but also to inform them about the latest market trends and give them suggestions to help them further grow and progress.
Thereafter, the TUC took into consideration their technical needs in order to develop a methodology that would efficiently and reliably achieve the detection of biomedical parameters gathered from the measurements of the vital signs in the smartwatch. This was achieved based on state-of-the-art methods, algorithms and techniques. In this context, the EDIH was able to not only provide a consultancy service but also propose an action plan that would enable the integration of algorithmic innovations, which in turn would efficiently and accurately detect biomarkers and diagnose specific pathologies.
The service smartHealth provided was divided into two parts: a) Data Preprocessing and b) Pathology Detection and Data Characterisation Techniques.
The first part was focused on the management of the data coming from the smartwatch in line with the current regulations. It covers pre-processing, first with encryption to secure transmission and storage, and then noise reduction or elimination in order to highlight/enhance the desired information. This process is a key step to ensure the validity of the data and the reliable detection of pathologies which provides interpretable results in the field of medicine.
In the second part, the plan was focused on a detailed description of a set of methodologies, which included AI for the detection of pathologies in ECG, with the intentions of characterising the data. Moreover, techniques for self-correction of signal data were presented in order to detect specific pathologies without the supervision of an expert. In this context, the investment and assistance of the EDIH was fundamental in helping the client access and learn important information and technological practices.
Results and Benefits
The benefits for TRAQBEAT stem primarily from the presentation of available technologies and possibilities aimed at enhancing the capabilities and functionalities of their smartwatch product, particularly for the detection of biomedical parameters. The real value of this initiative, however, is expected to materialise as the company implements the various recommendations and resources provided. Additional benefits are mainly anticipated in the following areas:
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Copyright protection: by securing the intellectual property of its software, TRAQBEAT will secure its financial and moral rights in the market in which it operates.
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Establishment of a universal data collection protocol: the establishment of a universal data collection protocol will contribute to the secure and rapid collection of data from various institutions and open databases. Consequently, this will achieve the collection of a multitude of data for analysis in a shorter period of time, thus pushing the company's momentum.
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Improvement of the company's operational processes: TRAQBEAT's development in the field of automation and artificial intelligence will bring about an improvement in its productivity and competitiveness in the short term. At the same time, the development of a strategy focused on people and the natural environment will promote the circular economy and sustainability.
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Maturity of services/products: TRAQBEAT will achieve market consolidation through the creation of competitive products and services, by maintaining continuous dedication to this goal and keeping abreast of current trends.
Furthermore, in order to cover their technical needs, the TUC offered a consultancy service in the form of a deliverable. This service included, detailed descriptions of modern techniques and methodologies for data pre-processing and pathology detection, and data characterization in order to use and apply the knowledge.
Perceived social/economic impact
The services offered through this collaboration will impact the basic technological functionalities of TRAQBEAT. It will facilitate the use of essential tools in vital signs for the company’s fields of application. In this regard, the company will become more familiar with providing effective solutions for measuring vital signs daily and in difficult environments, such as clinical, potentially increasing the use of wearable sensors with clinical and sophisticated analysis software.
However, as the market of clinical wearables is very sophisticated, we have to consider the possibility that the offered solutions will need to be updated regularly, especially, when it comes to information coding.
Moreover, through this opportunity TRAQBEAT was able to test and create methodologies that assist in estimating one vital sign from other, which in turn led to the use of fewer sensors (i.e. less use of material/resources). In the long-term view, this will potentially minimize the company's production cost and allow the investment in other important areas.
Measurable data
Before the services provided by smartHEALTH, TRAQBEAT was only able to apply simple methodologies to encrypt and denoise data.
Now, TRAQBEAT is able to fully utilize and implement the suggested solutions and recommendations which in the future could be able to pave the way for real-time sophisticated analysis during biosignals acquisition.
DMA score and results - Stage 0
The DMA questionnaire was completed by TRAQBEAT when the services were provided. The company received a 40%, compared to other EU initiatives. It is generally observed that the key strengthens of the company revolve around the dimension of human-centred digitalisation (60%), while the main area they have to improve upon is green digitalisation (20%).
DMA score and results – Stage 1
Since the services were given five months ago, the company proceeded with a second DMA (T1). In this DMA, the company has shown a significant increase in the overall index compared to the initial one (T0). The present DMA score is 59% (19% more than T0). This increase is translated by the relative categories as follows
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Digital Business Strategy (+7%)
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Digital Readiness (+22%)
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Human-Centric Digitalisation (+27%)
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Data Governance (+23%)
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Automation & AI (+16%)
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Green Digitalisation (+15%)
Lessons learned
This opportunity has highlighted the importance of efficient communication with the client in order to better understand their needs and specific problems. During the collaboration with TRAQBEAT no communication problems emerged as we prioritized the understanding of the problem and exactly what the required services were. Specifically, this need became apparent during the development of the methodology by TUC. Moreover, it is also important to have a precise understanding of the problem by asking simple and sequential questions to the client to save time on discussions and focus more on the developed solution/direction to the client.
In terms of mutual benefit, during this opportunity common research interests were highlighted which resulted in collaborative submission of research proposals and the expansion of the network of partners.
Additionally, is worth to mention that, even though the wearable market is very competitive, TRAQBEAT offers a unique solution for recording a large set of vital signs. In this case, the real challenge emerges during the actual deployment of this multidimensional information in the daily clinical routine. Thus, it is heavily recommended that training on how to use it is implemented for the clinical personnel as the solution will save time, money, space and energy in the daily clinic department routine.
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