We’re happy to announce that we’ve received our Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award from the National Institutes of Health, through the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). This award supports real-world testing of our in-ear sensor system for in-lab and ambulatory sleep monitoring, along with the data collection and algorithm development needed to enhance clinical workflows and utility.
While Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) testing has moved to the home in a big way over the past few years, the majority of the approximately 80 sleep disorders remain under- or poorly-served, largely because they are still tied to in-lab procedures that can’t capture the rich data or real-world conditions of home monitoring. Patients with Central Sleep Apnea (CSA), narcolepsy, REM sleep behavior disorder, and other complex sleep quality issues would benefit from home-based diagnosis and management, but currently their diagnosis and treatment depends on complex brainwave analysis (electroencephalography, or EEG) administered in clinical sleep labs. EEG has been hard to translate to home use, and consumer wearables lack the granularity these clinical use cases require.
Zircadia is building the solution to that gap in home-based EEG. Our soft, earbud-style platform captures EEG, EOG, EMG, and optionally ECG signals from inside the ear, in an easy, comfortable earbud form factor. It’s built on exclusively licensed patents and early human proof-of-concept work from the University of Colorado — then rigorously tested, redesigned at our Denver office, and re-tested with our clinical partner, Rebis Health, over two years. The result addresses comfort and workflow inside today’s sleep labs while extending accurate home-based EEG diagnostics to a broader range of sleep conditions where richer neurological signal adds clinical value.
Under the Phase I project, we’ll expand our previously published validation of in-ear signal quality, clinical utility, and patient comfort, usability, and reliability during overnight use — both in the sleep lab and at home. We’re grateful to be supported by several collaborators:
Collaborators & Partners
- Clinical collaboration with Colorado’s premier independent integrative sleep medicine clinic and laboratory, Rebis Health, with work led by Chief Science Officer Ellen Stothard, PhD, and Chief Medical Officer David McCarty, MD, FAASM.
- Signal analysis collaboration with Anh Nguyen, PhD, founder and director of the Mobile Cyber-Physical Intelligence (mCyPhI) Lab at the University of Montana.
- Compumedics Grael 4K devices for in-lab polysomnography, Falcon HST devices for home EEG-based data collection, and Profusion software for scoring and analysis.
Source: Zircadia
Zircadia NIH Phase I SBIR award
