Agreement for non-contact heart sensor

CSIRO has announced the signing of a licensing agreement with Melbourne-based bio-technology medical device company, HD Medical Group Limited, for commercial application of its non-contact sensor technology.

The agreement will support development of devices that detect, analyse and diagnose structural cardiac faults.

Jay Jethwa, managing director of HD Medical, said that the company has already been awarded a competitive Commercialising Emerging Technologies grant by the federal government for its patented and patent-pending breakthrough technology that helps in early detection of cardiovascular defects.

"The partnership with CSIRO will create further technologies that will bring considerable economic value to Australia, and be of benefit to physicians and patients alike in tackling the global scourge of heart-related problems," Jethwa said.

Clinical trials of the CSIRO/HD Medical integrated device will be performed at the Monash University Centre for Clinical Research Excellence at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne under the direction of cardiologist, Professor Henry Krum.

CSIRO's Vital Signs Sensor Technology is the result of research completed by the Wireless Technologies Laboratory in the CSIRO ICT Centre at Marsfield in Sydney, and uses a radio frequency method to monitor heart and lung conditions without skin contact and over clothing.

Iain Walker, business development manager for the Wireless Technologies Laboratory, said that the multi-modal research integration planned by HD Medical is targeting a new gold standard for heart diagnostics, which could lead to the creation of a heart failure predictive tool in the future.