TRAQBEAT Success Story: Test Before Invest – Fostering integration

This report presents a successful collaboration story between TRAQBEAT Technologies P.C. and the European Digital Innovation Hub “smartHEALTH”.

Key Information

TRAQBEAT Technologies P.C. is a fast-growing company with acknowledged excellence in conducting high-level research and development of innovative systems and services. Its activities focus on the development of a novel adaptable wearable health tracking device including quantitative health risk assessment methods and tools focusing on the wider area of medical sensing and informatics, e-health, m-Health, and Internet of Medical Things. Its goal is to develop and apply its novel technology in the wider context of personalized, predictive and preventive medicine aiming at the optimal management of diseases and the development of clinical decision support systems, optimization of diagnosis and disease combating tools and models for enhancing biomedical knowledge discovery.

The company realizes its goals through strong interaction between interdisciplinary engineers, product and operating managers with high R&D experience. TRAQBEAT’s expertise is on modern ICT, smart biomedical sensors, mobile and wireless technology platforms and service-oriented infrastructures for specialized embedded systems and ubiquitous monitoring applications. TRAQBEAT’s core technology consist of a proprietary – in house – developed novel battery-powered, wearable sensor and methods (patent pending) capable of continuously or intermittently measuring and recording of multiple health related biomarkers such as Heart Rate (HR), Heart Rate Variability (HRV), Blood Oxygen Levels (SpO2), Respiration Rate (RR), Blood Pressure (BP), Temperature and Electrocardiograph (ECG), on a need be basis. This enabling technology consists of precisely designed electronics and optical hardware for optimal signal capture, as well as state-of-the-art signal analysis and machine learning methods.

• Technologies Used: Standard tools for data anonymisation and de-anonymisation, as well as known AI methodologies/tools for identifying cardiac pathologies.
• Collaboration Period: 01/03/2024 – 30/06/2024
• Services Provided: Technical Guidance, Requirement Analysis, Consulting Services for enabling the integration of algorithmic innovations, aiming at a more efficient and accurate detection of biomarkers and the diagnosis of specific pathologies

The Challenge

TRAQBEAT is at a fairly satisfactory level of digital maturity compared to other SMEs operating in Europe. However, it needs to address several needs that emerged during the assessment of its digital maturity:

• Need to increase the level of technological readiness.
• Lack of a universal protocol for collecting data and configuring it to comply with current EU regulations.
• Lack of protection measures and regular information in the field of cyber-attack.
• Lack of continuous training of staff.
• Need to integrate automation and artificial intelligence techniques.
• Enhancing environmental sustainability by reducing environmental impact.

The Analysis

• Intellectual Property protection for the TRAQBEAT‘s software, as well as its industrial property rights related to the hardware.
• Update / Educate Staff on recent relevant technological developments, as well as on data security and cyber-attack protection issues, through regular training plans, subsidized training programs, webinars, collaborations with academic and research institutions and participation in scientific conferences.
• Establishment of a Universal Data Collection Protocol to collect data from various institutions and open databases.
• Improvement of the Company’s Operational Processes through automation and artificial intelligence to improve productivity and promote sustainability through a strategy focused on people and the natural environment.
• Maturation of Services/ Products through seamless monitoring of market trends in the sector in which the company operates and continuous adaptation of the company’s growth plan.

The Solutions

Through the cooperation between TRAQBEAT and the Technical University of Crete, the aim, in the first phase, was to obtain from TRAQBEAT a comprehensive picture of its level of digital maturity, compared to other SMEs in Europe, to be informed about the latest market trends, as well as to receive suggestions for its further development. Moreover, in relation to its technical needs, specific guidelines were provided by the Technical University of Crete for the development of an optimal methodology to efficiently and reliably achieve the detection of biomedical parameters resulting from the measurements of vital signs in the smartwatch, based on state-of-the-art methods, algorithms and techniques. In this context, a specific action plan was proposed, including the provision of a consultancy service to enable the integration of algorithmic innovations, aiming at a more efficient and accurate detection of biomarkers and the diagnosis of specific pathologies. This service is divided into two sections: a) Data Preprocessing, and b) Pathology Detection and Data Characterisation Techniques.

The first section focused on the management of the data coming from the smartwatch, in accordance with the current regulations, and their pre-processing, first by encryption, for the purposes of their secure transmission and storage, and then by reducing or eliminating noise, while highlighting/enhancing the desired information. This process is a key step in ensuring the appropriateness of the data before further analysis, to provide interpretable results in the field of medicine by allowing reliable detection of pathologies.

In the second section of the service, the plan focused on the detailed description of a set of methodologies leading to the characterization of the data, including machine and deep learning techniques for the detection of pathologies in ECG. Then, techniques for self-correction of signal data were presented to detect specific pathologies in them without the supervision of an expert.

The Implementation

Based on the needs of TRAQBEAT, the Technical University of Crete delivered a report containing a detailed action plan of the consultancy service, based on scientific publications and providing appropriate computational tools, where available. The total delivery time lasted four months, covering the period from 01/03/2024 to 30/06/2024. This period was divided into two sub-periods of two months each, to complete the first module, “Data Preprocessing”, and the second one concerning “Pathology Detection Techniques and Data Characterization”, respectively, with some meetings with TRAQBEAT in between.

Data pre-processing:

• Raw Data Encryption/Cryptography for the purpose of protecting the raw data received from the smartwatch, both during transmission and storage in cloud platforms, where data conversion and encryption techniques based on widely used encryption algorithms such as streaming cryptographic algorithms, etc. were proposed.
• Encoding/Encryption of Vital Signals Data, where similarly methods were proposed for encoding vital signals data received from the smartwatch, both during transmission and storage, and based on the relevant standards FHIR MHD, ISO/IEEE 11073-20601:2022, etc.
• Data de-noising using techniques such as digital filtering, statistical analysis and decomposition of digital signals, use of deep learning techniques, etc., particularly for electrocardiogram (ECG) and photoplethysmography (PPG) signals.

Pathology Detection and Data Characterization Techniques:

• Pathology Detection Techniques in ECG using machine and deep learning methods to reliably detect and characterize abnormal values by selecting the most useful features of the signal, and then identifying findings that can be interpreted as specific cardiac pathologies from a variety of contemporary cases.
• Self-referencing techniques, where data is characterized in an automated manner without expert supervision, using various techniques that approximate the process, such as clustering algorithms, semi-supervised learning.

The Benefits

The benefits gained through TRAQBEAT cooperation with the Technical University of Crete, first of all, relate to its information regarding the level of its digital maturity, as well as the latest market trends. Additional benefits, which are mainly expected in the near future, are related to the following areas:

• Copyright protection: by securing the intellectual property of its software, TRAQBEAT will secure both its financial and moral rights in the market in which it operates.
• Information/Training of Personnel: Through regular training plans, subsidized training programs, participation in scientific conferences, and in cooperation with academic institutions, TRAQBEAT‘s staff will be kept up-to-date on technological developments in the services provided and products produced by the company.
• Establishment of a Universal Data Collection Protocol: the establishment of a universal data collection protocol will contribute to the secure and rapid collection of data from various institutions and open databases, in order to achieve the collection of a multitude of data for analysis in a shorter period of time thus pushing the company’s momentum.
• Improvement of the Company’s Operational Processes: TRAQBEAT‘s development in the field of automation and artificial intelligence will bring about an improvement in its productivity and competitiveness in the short term. At the same time, the development of a strategy focused on people and the natural environment will promote the circular economy and sustainability.
• Maturation of services/products: TRAQBEAT will achieve market consolidation through the creation of competitive products and services, by maintaining continuous dedication to this goal and keeping abreast of current trends.

Follow “smartHEALTH” on social media for the latest news and updates: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter.