The development of a small use-at-home device for electronically measuring a person's "cardiac wellness" is just one of the innovative devices likely to come from a new research centre at Dublin City University.
Details of the new €22.5 million Centre for Future Diagnostics in Health were announced yesterday in Government Buildings by Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micheál Martin.
The initiative involves four academic partners - including DCU, the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, NUI Galway and University College Cork - and six industrial partners. Its goal is to develop cheaper, faster diagnostic devices that can be used at home to provide early warnings of disease risk, said the centre's director, Prof Brian MacCraith.
It is a multidisciplinary effort that will involve 60 biologists, biochemists, electronics experts and other research specialists for the development of medical diagnostic equipment.
Government-backed research funding body Science Foundation Ireland contributed €16.5 million to the project under its CSET (Centre for Science Engineering and Technology) programme.
The balance of funding will come from industrial partners Becton Dickinson, Analog Devices Inc, Hospira, Inverness Medical Innovations, O-mic and Enfer Scientific. These com-panies will also contribute researchers to projects undertaken by the centre.
The centre will provide the next generation of diagnostic equipment using the latest technologies including microchip arrays and miniaturised electronics, said Prof MacCraith.
Cardiovascular disease accounts for 38 per cent of all deaths in Ireland and affects quality of life for many more, he said at the launch yesterday. The "cardiac wellness" home diagnostic device would be an early project for the centre, he added. "In order to achieve this, we need to develop a low-cost, use-at-home device that is disposable."
Mr Martin praised the objectives of the centre in helping to provide early diagnosis of disease. "This CSET aims at . . . delivering the science and technology that will drive this century's revolution in health management," he said. "Ireland's future depends on exploiting ideas and the creativity of talented researchers here."
The devices themselves represent a considerable technological challenge, Prof MacCraith said. They will use no more than a millionth of a litre of saliva or blood to test almost instantly for a whole range of risk factors associated with specific diseases.