Maud Olofsson was very interested and asked many questions about the background to the company Medfield Diagnostics, the research at Chalmers and what drives entrepreneurs. The Minister for Enterprise and Energy also expressed the view that innovations implemented between different disciplines, where communication and cooperation take place for example between technical universities and the health-care sector, are very important and a great strength of Sweden.

"Sweden is well placed to create a good climate for innovation. We are good at combining different disciplines and skills, but the international competition is becoming ever tougher," she commented.

The work has paid off for Medfield Diagnostics
Medfield Diagnostics made its first sale of the diagnostic equipment to Sahlgrenska University Hospital at the end of December 2010. A clinical study began in Neurology in March 2011 to further verify Medfield's technology to enable the cause of stroke to be diagnosed - rapidly distinguishing a brain haemorrhage from a blood clot.  
 
Ten patients have already been enrolled in the study during the just over a month it has been running. This is a significantly higher pace than a previous study and also faster than might have been expected.
"All the work we have done on our product development is now starting to pay off. We wanted to create a user-friendly instrument that health-care staff can easily get started with. It is, of course, very satisfying to get such a good response from the hospital. In addition, this is evident in how well the study is progressing," Patrik Dahlqvist emphasises.

Reduced rehabilitation costs with Strokefinder R10
The instrument will be used in further studies, in which the opportunities presented by microwave technology as a monitoring instrument for patients with TIAs (transient ischaemic attacks), also known as "mini-strokes", will be investigated. TIAs lead to a stroke in the next few days in 10% of cases. An alarm for use at night-time in stroke units makes it possible to wake a patient at the precise moment when a stroke occurs, in contrast to the present-day method, where the patient is routinely woken every three hours.

In the longer term, ambulances may be equipped with Strokefinder R10 so that the correct diagnosis can be made immediately in the event of a stroke alarm. As a result, treatment can be started significantly earlier, leading to less, or no, permanent damage and reduced rehabilitation costs for the whole of stroke care.

Text/Press release in Swedish to download here

Further information:
Government press release: Regeringen satsar på innovation inom hälso- och sjukvård och äldreomsorg » (in Swedish)
www.medfielddiagnostics.com

Contact:
Patrik Dahlqvist, CEO, Medfield Diagnostics
Phone + 46 80931-741 17 53 or + 46 (0)733-18 71 97
patrik.dahlqvist@medfielddiagnostics.com