DkIT & Nova Leah Secure €3.7M Funding to Support Innovative Medical Device Research Projects
Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT) and medical cybersecurity specialist and spin-out company, Nova Leah have received almost €4 million (€3.7 million) to support two industry projects aimed at driving disruptive innovation in the areas of medtech and connected health cybersecurity.
The projects are funded as part of the government’s Disruptive Technology Innovation Fund, a €500 million fund established under the Project Ireland 2040 capital investment plan, which aims to provide finance to projects that tackle national and global challenges in a way that will create and secure jobs into the future.
During a recent visit to DkIT, Minister of State for Higher Education, Mary Mitchell O’Connor, T.D. spent some time speaking with representatives from Nova Leah and the Regulated Software Research Centre about the project. The Minister said,
“These projects highlight the importance of strong collaboration between research in Higher Education and regional industry. By drawing on the mutually-beneficial expertise held within both organisations, DkIT and Nova Leah are working together to develop new technologies to drive increased efficiencies and cybersecurity mechanisms which will transform global healthcare as we know it. Innovation in this area will create more opportunities for our graduates today and will reinforce Ireland’s position as an emerging global hub for medical device innovation.”
The President of DkIT, Michael Mulvey, PhD, added,
“Nova Leah is a fantastic enterprise success story for the North Leinster South Ulster region. A recent spin-out from DkIT’s Regulated Software Research Centre, the company, under the leadership of CEO and Founder, Anita Finnegan, has already established a reputation as a world leader in the provision cyber security solutions for medical device manufacturers and healthcare providers. As an Institute, we are delighted to continue our relationship with Nova Leah through research collaboration to develop technological advancements in medtech.”
The first funded project, ‘Connected Medical Device Cybersecurity Transparency’ is a joint collaboration between the Regulated Software Research Centre at DkIT and Nova Leah. The project which received €1.5m in funding, aims to develop a hosted software platform, ‘Select IS’ which will facilitate the timely sharing of security related information across the medical device and healthcare industry to enhance the security posture of the industry as a whole.
Speaking about the project, Dr Fergal McCaffrey, Director of the Regulated Software Research Centre and Co-Founder of Nova Leah said,
“The funding allows us to advance our capability in the area of artificial intelligence, data analytics and blockchain techniques to develop and provide a real-time platform for the two-way communication of safety-critical security information between medical device manufacturers and hospitals. The project aims to dramatically enhance how healthcare providers can manage and prevent security-related incidences for their medical devices.”
The second project, ‘Medical Imaging Ireland’ is a broader collaboration between the RSRC/DkIT, Nova Leah Ltd, IBM Ireland, UCD and Davra Networks Ltd. This project Medical Imaging Ireland (MED-I) will disrupt the Irish medical imaging market by delivering a platform offering enabling technologies which can host, manage, process and analyse image and text data and brings together the entire ecosystem of actors in the medical imaging domain.
Also speaking today, Peter Finnegan, Co-Founder of Nova Leah added,
“One in two people will be diagnosed with cancer during their life time, and four in five will suffer from cardio vascular diseases. These disease types, and at least fifteen others are diagnosed and managed using complex imaging modalities that produce both structured and unstructured data at an ever-increasing volume and velocity. Medical Imaging Ireland will provide much-needed technology solution for the market to host, manage, process and analyse this data.”
The Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund is led by the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation with administrative support from Enterprise Ireland. The DkIT projects were among the first 27 approved projects covering health, food, ICT and manufacturing sectors in Ireland.
Further information on the approved projects can be found here: https://dbei.gov.ie/en/What-We-Do/Innovation-Research-Development/Disruptive-Technologies-Innovation-Fund/
