Refocussing and realigning for our next steps in the SMARTSHAPE project

Over the course of two days, the SMARTSHAPE team met in person to share updates on the project’s advancements and collaboratively plan the next steps. The event provided an ideal backdrop for fruitful discussions and productive brainstorm sessions with our multidisciplinary team.

“The building blocks of the SMARTSHAPE blood pressure monitoring sensor project are in phase and on time. The great multidisciplinary SMARTSHAPE consortium is working very effectively to deliver more effective blood pressure monitoring in high risk patients with resistant hypertension or stroke.” – Prof. dr. William Wijns, principal investigator and project coordinator SMARTSHAPE

Host partner Merakoi kicked off the meeting by diving into the patient side of the SMARTSHAPE project. Mapping out the different patient journeys is key to understanding where the novelty of the SMARTSHAPE device jumps in to improve blood pressure monitoring for patients.

“In the end, the main point of the project is to get to the patient, so it’s very valuable to discuss the patient side of this device. We now know where we can focus our efforts and our technology.” – Kevin Michels-Kim, CEO at Merakoi

Through close collaboration, the University of Birmingham and the University of Galway made significant progress in the development of the biomaterial for the sensor, as well as in its design and manufacturing. Building upon this, Explora srl look to prepare for a first pilot study to test the sensor.

“We are working in the right direction together, rather than separately. With this meeting, we made sure again that we are working well in parallel rather than in opposite directions. Also for the technical side of things, it is really good to have TSQ and Scinnovation on board to bring us all back on track.” – Zoe Schofield, research fellow at University of Birmingham

Scinnovation is actively working on bringing clarity to the environmental, economic and societal impact of the process of manufacturing the sensor and wearable device. To address this impact, good discussions took place to visualise the entire manufacturing chain and its various steps. As a next step, TSQ is making sure SMARTSHAPE is well-prepared to meet all regulatory requirements, to comply with all medical regulations.

“This meeting has been a great energetic opportunity to refocus and realign. We have a very connected team, and we have a clear focus to make further progress in the upcoming year.” – David Connolly, Programme Manager at University of Galway

The meeting prepared the entire SMARTSHAPE team for another year of effective collaboration, taking the next steps to improve continuous blood pressure monitoring.

Make sure to stay tuned and follow our journey!