Spotted: The World Stroke Organization’s Global Fact Sheet 2022 revealed that the absolute number of cases of stroke increased “substantially” between 1990 and 2019. And with that growth, a correspondingly high financial cost is borne by health services. Seeking a way to reduce the mortality rate for large vessel occlusions (LVOs) – the most common kind of stroke – Cambridge, England-based startup Upfront Diagnostics has created a rapidly deployed, mobile, and highly accurate stroke detection kit.
The company discovered new blood biomarkers that are able to detect strokes, and with that knowledge, built the LVOne. The handheld device uses a single drop of blood from a finger prick to diagnose an acute ischaemic stroke caused by LVO and is designed for use on the go in an ambulance on the way to a hospital A&E. Paramedics administering the test receive results in 15 minutes or less.
With LVOs responsible for up to 96 per cent of stroke deaths, the ability to identify an occurrence en route to the hospital relieves some of the burden on the receiving care team and allows the patient to access time-sensitive treatment as quickly as possible. Upfront Diagnostics highlights that for every 15 minutes of earlier treatment, there is a cost-saving of over $60,000 (around €53,500) per patient. Multiply that efficiency by the millions of cases of strokes worldwide and the potential reduction in financial burden for health services is enormous.
Upfront Diagnostics validated the accuracy of its technology by testing 270 patients at the Royal Victoria Infirmary Hospital in Newcastle, UK. After closing a round of seed funding that raised £1.6 million (around €1.9 million), the company plans to scale up the availability of its technology as well as continue research and development (R&D) in order to identify additional types of strokes and refine the system’s overall precision.
From assistive robots to rehabilitation robotic gloves, Springwise’s archive contains a range of innovative projects focused on improving the health of stroke patients.
British airline EasyJet and engineering company Rolls-Royce have run a commercial aircraft engine on hydrogen in what they claim is a “world first”, potentially paving the way for the decarbonisation of plane travel.
The companies trialled the engine in a ground test at the UK Defence Ministry’s Boscombe Down aircraft testing site using renewably-made green hydrogen and a converted Rolls-Royce AE 2100 – a regional aircraft engine.
The engine is considered an early concept demonstrator, so the technology is still in its infancy. But both Rolls-Royce and EasyJet say they are committed to proving that hydrogen can be a safe and efficient zero-carbon fuel for civil aviation.
Rolls-Royce has converted one of its aircraft engines to run on hydrogen
“The success of this hydrogen test is an exciting milestone,” said Rolls-Royce chief technology officer Grazia Vittadini.
“We are committed to continuing to support this ground-breaking research because hydrogen offers great possibilities for a range of aircraft,” added EasyJet CEO Johan Lundgren. “That will be a huge step forward in meeting the challenge of net zero by 2050.”
The test, which the companies claim was a “world first”, used green hydrogen supplied by the European Marine Energy Centre and created with the help of wind and tidal power in Scotland’s Orkney Islands.
This renewable electricity was used to power an electrolyser, which separates hydrogen from water in a process called electrolysis.
It was produced in partnership with EasyJet
To maximise the amount of hydrogen that fits into a tank, the gas is compressed to a pressure of 200 bar – equivalent to around 200 times the atmospheric pressure on Earth.
Rolls-Royce’s AE 2100-A engine was converted to combust this hydrogen instead of conventional fossil fuel-derived kerosene.
Rolls-Royce and EasyJet now plan to analyse the test data to improve their understanding of how to handle and operate hydrogen as an aviation fuel.
The partners are also planning future tests, starting with further ground tests before they move on to carrying out test flights.
They also plan to bring in a jet engine, the Rolls-Royce Pearl 15. This is more powerful than the AE 2100-A, which is generally used for smaller turboprop planes.
As signatories of the United Nations’ Race to Zero campaign, both Rolls-Royce and EasyJet are committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 in an effort to keep global warming below the crucial threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The engine was tested at a military facility in the UK
Coming up with an alternative aviation fuel is a huge challenge for airlines, which currently contribute about 2.5 per cent of global CO2 emissions.
Green hydrogen is seen as a possible solution because it is made using renewable resources – green energy and water – and theoretically could see planes emit only water when used as a fuel.
There are several potential ways to use hydrogen in an engine, including as a liquid rather than a gas and as a fuel cell rather than through combustion.
However, critics have doubts whether jet planes will ever have the capacity to carry as much hydrogen as is needed to make their long journeys, and it is likely that aircraft would need to be quite heavily redesigned.
Several small hydrogen-powered aircraft have already flown, including those from aircraft developer ZeroAvia. Among the large airlines, Airbus is also pursuing the use of hydrogen, and in 2020 revealed three concepts for future aircraft powered by liquid hydrogen.
Rolls-Royce Holdings is the world’s second-largest maker of aircraft engines after General Motors and revealed its net-zero strategy in 2021. The company is separate to Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, which is wholly owned by the BMW Group.
Design agency Morrama has devised a concept for a Covid-19 test that is biodegradable and fully recyclable, right down to its packaging – potentially eliminating a common source of plastic waste.
The ECO-FLO test – which is, for the time being, a concept design only – would be the first in the world to be 100 per cent recyclable and biodegradable, according to Morrama.
The design agency devised the solution to cut down on the amount of single-use plastic generated by the pandemic. While both face masks and Covid-19 tests are at least partially recyclable, it is only through specialised facilities and not through residential collection, so must users have been advised to place them in the waste bin.
The ECO-FLO test has fewer parts than today’s lateral flow test (left)
“At Morrama, we were inspired to create a test kit that doesn’t contribute to the amount of plastic ending up in our landfills, so ECO-FLO was born,” said the agency’s founder and creative director Jo Barnard.
Morrama’s proposal achieves this goal by making the test itself from moulded paper pulp, and its outer packaging from biodegradable NatureFlex film, which would both break down in approximately four to six weeks.
The other plastic elements – the swab, test tubes and their associated packaging – are all eliminated, as the agency rethought every step of the testing process to minimise materials and maximise ease of use.
The test would be made from paper pulp and the sachet from biodegradable film
Instead of the two mainstream test types on the market, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and rapid antigen (lateral flow), ECO-FLO applies a new method called the Parallel Amplified Saliva rapid POint-of-caRe Test (PASPORT).
It works with only a saliva sample, so there is no need for buffer solution or a nasal swab – an element that can be difficult to use for those with disabilities or impairments, or when testing children.
The user would only need to spit on ECO-FLO’s absorbent pad, close the test package and push the moulded button to transfer the sample from the absorbent pad to the test strip.
All of the instructions are printed directly on the test
All of the instructions are printed directly on the test so there is no need for additional leaflets, and it is made more readable by replacing the currently used scientific notations – such as “C” for “control” and “T” for test – with simple checkboxes. In Morrama’s conceptualisation, the packaging is the product.
“Thinking about the test as less of a product and more a piece of functional packaging really influenced the direction,” Barnard told Dezeen.
“Packaging by its nature should always be designed for end-of-life, so we started not with a design, but with materials that can be recycled and recaptured.”
While the need for Covid-19 tests may be in decline, Barnard says the ECO-FLO design remains relevant for countries still undertaking mass testing, such as China, which is disposing of over a million kits a day.
It would also assist groups with accessibility requirements, such as the young, old and those with mental health or learning difficulties.
Results in simple English make the test easier to read
However, Morrama is also positioning ECO-FLO as a provocation for the world to start thinking about sustainable design for future pandemics now.
“Whilst much of the Western world has moved on from mass testing of Covid-19, there has been regular warnings from experts that pandemics are only set to become more likely,” said Barnard.
“With the failures from our response to Covid still fresh in our mind, we need to act now to ensure we are better prepared in the future.”
The moulded paper design includes a push button to activate the test
For the concept to become a reality, PASPORT would need to be approved for use in at-home test; currently, it is still in trials. Cost should not be a barrier, as Morrama expects the required paper injection moulding or dry moulded fibre processing to be cost-competitive with plastic injection moulding at volume.
Morrama was founded in 2015. The agency’s past projects include the minimal Angle razor, also aimed at reducing plastic waste, and a series of “smarter phone” concepts aimed at improving wellbeing.
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Australian start-up Hoopsy has created a recyclable pregnancy test that is 99 per cent made out of paper, aiming to stop millions of single-use plastic versions ending up in landfill each year.
The Hoopsy “eco pregnancy test” is made almost entirely out of paper, with cardboard packaging that can be recycled in domestic bins. Only the pouch the test comes in is made of soft plastic and needs to be recycled through supermarket collection.
The company aims for its products to replace plastic home pregnancy tests, 12.5 million of which it says are completed each year in the UK before being thrown in the bin.
The Hoopsy test is 99 per cent made out of paper
Entrepreneur Lara Solomon founded Hoopsy after going through IVF and embryo donation procedures that made her realise just how many times people who are trying to conceive test themselves.
She said she used “countless” pregnancy tests in the 14-day period following her embryo transfer. She then went on to develop the product, naming it after the Dutch word for “hope”.
“I feel that when you do a pregnancy test there is a lot of hope – a ‘hope I am’ or a ‘hope I’m not’!” Solomon told Dezeen. “Plus, it also has connotations with jumping through hoops in life, which is sometimes what trying for a baby feels like.”
Only the pouch the test comes in is made of plastic
“On top of this, there’s hope for the future that this product can help reduce plastic waste,” she continued.
Hoopsy has been approved for sale by the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency following clinical trials that showed it was over 99 per cent accurate from the day of a person’s expected period.
Like most home pregnancy tests, it works by measuring levels of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG, commonly known as the pregnancy hormone) in the urine.
The test is taken midstream, which Solomon said most users prefer to strip tests that require prior collection of the urine in a container. To use it, a person holds the end of the test with the Hoopsy logo while placing the other end in their urine stream for three to five seconds.
The test has been approved for sale in the UK
They then place the test on a flat surface and wait five to 10 minutes to read the result. Afterwards, the paper test can be cut in half so the part that’s been urinated on can be put in the bin while the clean portion goes in paper recycling.
Hoopy was developed entirely in-house by Solomon and the manufacturer, but she hopes to work with an external design team for the second iteration of the product, which she aims to make from 100 per cent paper.
The test is taken midstream and is more than 99 per cent accurate
“I’d love to see all plastic tests phased out eventually,” said Solomon. “I think that the pregnant/not pregnant digital screen version instead of two lines is not necessary.”
“The ‘number of weeks’ tests are more tricky to replicate in a non-plastic way, but I am confident we could look at a non-digital version as a way to stop that waste.”
Another single-use plastic testing product that has recently been given a recyclable reimagining is the Covid 19-test. Design agency Morrama came up with a concept design made from moulded paper pulp and NatureFlex film.
Spotted: Lisbon-based Virtuleap is a health and education startup using artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR) to elevate the cognitive assessment and training industry. The company believes that VR brain training can add value to any healthy lifestyle as a frequent activity taking up less than 10 minutes per session.
Virtuleap’s core product, Enhance, is a VR app with a library of brain training games that test and train various cognitive skills like memory, problem-solving, spatial orientation, and motor control. The company says that VR “engages multiple learning systems, which makes it a more effective and natural environment for cognitive training than 2D screen-based brain training apps”.
Enhance’s games are designed by neuroscientists and game designers with the intention of being both fun and effective. The app currently offers more than 14 short games across nine different categories: memory, problem-solving, flexibility, working memory, spatial orientation, motor control, auditory cognition, task switching, and planning – with Additional skills to be introduced in the near future.
The app also allows users to track their progress with reporting tools to know how their quality of sleep and moods affect their cognitive performance.
In 2020, the company published a white paper citing 76 peer-reviewed studies explaining why they believe that VR cognitive training systems may transfer and improve specific domains or global cognition.
Parallel with Enhance, Virtuleap also developed a web-based dashboard for corporations, such as senior living communities, hospitals, clinics, and educational institutions, to access reporting and data tools. The company hopes its platform will provide caregivers with additional capabilities to help the aging population with cognitive conditions such as dementia and Alzheimer’s.
Other medical uses of VR spotted by Springwise include a virtual environment for treating phobias, gamified neurology treatments, and a VR live stream of surgical procedures for remote learning.
