All systems go for Siobhan

A nomination for an award at the Global Mobile Awards at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week, has proved a significant boost for Dublin start-up company Sensormind.

Using innovative technology, the company has developed a monitoring and alert system, which enables older or vulnerable people to live independently.

“Our system is unique in that it automatically detects a problem and raises and alarm. We are at the forefront of developing new solutions for independent living,” says Sensormind chief executive Siobhan King-Hughes.

Partnered with Vodafone for the nomination, Sensormind is one of six companies to be shortlisted for a Best Mobile Health Produce or Service Award at the Global Mobile Awards which are being held this week.

“Being shortlisted for this has got us a lot of attention and has given us recognition as one of the top five or six players in the mHealth (using mobile technology in healthcare) sector,” says Ms King-Hughes, who is making plans to develop sales in the US and Europe.

A software developer who worked for a variety of blue-chip multinationals including AOL, Oracle and Microsoft, Ms King-Hughes developed the technology herself after observing the difficulties experienced by elderly people living alone but needing monitoring.

“I thought there had to be a way to use technology to make it easier,” she says.

She’d had a baby and was looking for an idea for a company when she noticed this gap in the market. “In 2008 no one had heard of mHealth, there was no industry in this space.”

Approaching Enterprise Ireland with the idea, she got a feasibility study grant and subsequently signed up on the Hothouse Programme at DIT. Registering the company in 2008, she set up Sensormind at the Invent Centre in DCU.

Developing the technology took three years and involved not only creating software but also sourcing hardware. Aiming to keep the cost of her product as low as possible, Ms King-Hughes found a hardware product in the Far East which she was able to modify for use with her software.

In 2009, Sensormind secured angel funding and took on four staff. A year later, it was identified by Enterprise Ireland as a High Potential Start-Up. Since 2008, the company has secured in the region of €800,000 in funding.

While working on finalising the technology in 2011, Ms King-Hughes also worked on developing a market strategy.

When she had started working on the project, the idea of using mobile technology in healthcare was quite new. By the time she was ready for launch, it had become more widely accepted.

“The global mHealth market is expected to reach $12.2bn (€9.2bn) by 2018; growing from $1.3bn in 2012. The monitoring services segment is in a commanding position, having contributed about 63% of the global mHealth market revenue in 2012.”

The Sensormind product operates by using sensors to detect changes in behavioural patterns and raising an alarm when something unusual happens. According to Ms King-Hughes, it is one of only a handful of this type of technologically-advanced products in this space. She sees significant scope for sales, given the difficulties posed by aging populations in Europe and the US.

Sensormind’s product retails at €499, while the company also charges a monthly fee of €39 for the service. According to Ms King-Hughes, this provides a cost-effective 24-hour monitoring solution which is non-intrusive and complements existing homecare services.

The product was launched on the market in late 2011. Since then, it has sold to close to 100 individuals around Ireland and also to five or six borough councils in the UK.

Sensormind switched its focus to the UK in early 2012. “We did a trade show and met with representatives from councils, who were very interested in our product. They were already working on telecare and were looking for alternative models,” says Ms King-Hughes.

In early 2012, Sensormind sold ten units to Camden Council who wanted them to monitor persons with dementia living in the community. “This was our first sale and was also important because it gave us a reference customer,” observes Ms King-Hughes.

Having fine-tuned the product and developed several reference customers, Sensormind is now ready to step up a gear. “We are now concentrating on the carrier market and are looking at delivering on a much larger scale, through larger companies,” according to Ms King-Hughes.

The company has had discussions with a number of companies and Ms Hughes- King says she is hopeful that it will enter into partnership with a US company and launch there before the end of the year. The company has already set up a virtual office in the US.

To scale up, Ms King-Hughes says the company will probably need to raise further funding. But for now she’s in Barcelona at the Mobile World Congress where she expects the award nomination will help Sensormind attract good interest.