Utrecht-based Prolira, a startup that helps hospital departments improve patient care in cases of acute brain failure (acute encephalopathy and delirium), announced that it has raised €5M in a fresh round of funding.
The round was led by Borski fund along with other investors, including ROM Utrecht Region, Holland Capital, Health Innovations, and Oost NL.
Rutger van Merkerk, CEO of Prolira, says, “In the years to come, routine brain state monitoring will become part of the normal set of vital parameters. Our objective is to further advance our position by supporting hospital departments to realise improved care for their acute brain failure patients. This growth capital investment enables an increased uptake of our offering in key European countries and, after FDA clearance, also a lift-off in the USA.”
Detection and monitoring of acute encephalopathy and delirium
According to Prolira, Delirium (acute brain failure) affects over 3 million hospitalised patients in Europe every year. It is a potentially fatal medical emergency that regularly leads to long-term cognitive impairment (dementia), results in longer hospital admission, and directly contributes to higher healthcare costs.
Delirium equals diabetes in societal costs, estimated at €173B. The longer a delirium episode lasts, the more damage is done. It is detected too little and too late, as detection is based on subjective and ineffective methods.
“It is our challenge to solve the unmet clinical need for accurate and safe delirium detection, and making the solution fit into routine care,” says Prolira.
The company responds to this market need through the introduction of a non-invasive medical device for delirium detection. Prolira’s EEG-based device consists of a single-use electrode patch, the DeltaScan Patch, and a hardware/software module, the DeltaScan Monitor, that analyses brain activity.
What is DeltaScan?
Prolira claims DeltaScan is a breakthrough device for delirium recognition and treatment. DeltaScan is a medical device that objectively monitors the brain state of patients using breakthrough EEG technology and smart AI algorithms.
With DeltaScan, nurses or doctors can assess their patient’s brain for serious signs of illnesses like acute encephalopathy and delirium within minutes, and consequently, can help their patients recover earlier and better.
Annemarie Willems, founder of Prolira, says, “Monitoring the brain state of patients is as important as monitoring other vital organs like the heart or the lungs. Every year, as many as 20 million hospital patients are at risk of acute brain failure in Europe and the US. This large group of patients needs the care improvement that Prolira offers.”
With DeltaScan, acute encephalopathy and delirium are detected in more patients and earlier, providing healthcare care professionals timely information to improve their care processes. Prolira claims that its product, DeltaScan, is the world’s first EEG device with AI algorithms that objectively and reliably find 75 per cent more cases than usual care.
About Prolira
Founded in 2015 by Annemarie Willems and Rutger van Merkerk, Prolira is a high tech research and development SME, and a spin-off from the University Medical Center Utrecht, the Netherlands.
According to the company, 20 million patients each year are at risk of acute brain failure in EU and US hospitals, which leads to long-term cognitive impairment, including dementia, longer hospital stays, and higher healthcare costs. Prolira looks to address the costly and growing healthcare problem: acute brain failure, a serious response of the brain to common underlying medical conditions like kidney failure or COVID.
Currently, the company has more than 25+ hospital departments in the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, and the UK as its customers.
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