Innovation Zed and SIRMA Medical Systems Announce Global Partnership

Innovation Zed and SIRMA Medical Systems Announce Global Partnership to Improve Health Outcomes for People with Diabetes

Dublin, Ireland, 18th July 2019

Innovation Zed, an Irish medtech company, today announced the signing of a global partnership and data integration agreement with SIRMA Medical Systems.

As a result of this new partnership the companies will pursue joint efforts to promote and sell their products as a single integrated system to improve health outcomes for people with diabetes.

Innovation Zed, headquartered at NovaUCD, the Centre for New Ventures and Entrepreneurs at University College Dublin, was co-founded by William Cirillo and John Hughes. SIRMA Medical Systems is a division of SIRMA Group, one of the largest privately-owned Bulgarian IT Groups.

Last year Innovation Zed, launched InsulCheck Connect, an insulin pen add-on technology which automatically collects essential usage data that informs insulin pen users of their injection history. When paired with a Bluetooth® enabled device, the end-user can view behavioural analysis on their choice of diabetes management applications.

SIRMA Medical Systems is a leading company in software applications and integrated platforms for e-Health. Its mobile application Diabetes:M is among the most popular applications for both Android and iOS devices, with more than 350,000 installations and 50,000+ active users.

Currently, adherence to insulin therapy is one of the most difficult aspects of diabetes treatment. A simple focus on motivating users to increase adherence to their daily injection schedule can potentially improve their long-term glucose control (HbA1c). Such improvements can assist in reducing the likelihood of developing diabetes related complications.

“Now that our InsulCheck Connect technology is incorporated with the Diabetes:M platform, we can empower existing platform users, and entice new users to adopt this technology ecosystem with aims to improve adherence and their diabetes treatment,” said Dean Minnock, Director of Business Development, Innovation Zed.

“Our products are designed to enable and drive those improvements and combining an advanced data management system such as Diabetes:M platform makes reaching optimum therapy attainable.”

Rossen Varbanov, CEO, SIRMA Medical Systems, said,

“This global partnership is yet another cornerstone in our strategy to bring quality diabetes management to a wider audience. Therapy adherence is a serious issue and we are dedicated to making a cumbersome task as easy as it could be. The unique features for insulin pen users in Diabetes:M are designed to both save time and allow them to do things, otherwise only available to pump users.”

“We believe the option to calculate and set reminders for split extended bolus and the automated processes that a Bluetooth® connected pen allows will be of great benefit to owners of Innovation Zed’s InsulCheck Connect.”

Innovation Zed is an Enterprise Ireland high-potential start-up (HPSU) company.


Innovation Zed and GlucoRX Join Forces

Innovation Zed and GlucoRX join forces to Improve Health Outcomes for People with Diabetes

Dublin, Ireland, 2 May 2018

Innovation Zed, an Irish medtech company, today announced the signing of a global partnership and data integration agreement for its family of insulin pen ‘add-on’ devices with UK-based GlucoRx.

GlucoRx is a leading supplier of innovative management solutions for diabetes in the UK, Ireland, Portugal, Bulgaria, USA, Brazil, Ghana and Kenya.

Innovation Zed, headquartered at NovaUCD, the Centre for New Ventures and Entrepreneurs at University College Dublin (UCD), is dedicated to helping insulin pen users within the diabetes population.

Currently, insulin adherence levels are reported to be around 63% and Innovation Zed’s own research highlights that injection compliance is significantly below what is prescribed.

Studies also demonstrate that a simple focus on motivating users to increase adherence to their daily injection schedule can improve their long-term glucose control (HbA1c) readings. Such improvements can assist in reducing the likelihood of developing diabetes-related complications.

As a result of this new partnership agreement, GlucoRx will immediately begin distributing Innovation Zed’s InsulCheck Classic device, which shows the time since last injection to help people avoid double and missed injections and to help improve HbA1c readings.

“There are tangible health and cost benefits to a 1% improvement in HbA1c,” said John Hughes, CEO, Innovation Zed, himself an insulin user. “Every step towards optimum therapy treatment shows a measurable improvement in the short and long-term health outcomes for patients. Our products are designed to enable and drive those improvements.”

Chris Chapman, Group Managing Director of GlucoRx Ltd, said, “We are confident that thousands of people with diabetes currently on insulin and people needing other injectables will find InsulCheck Classic extremely useful.  GlucoRx is very excited about the healthy pipeline of products that Innovation Zed will be launching in the near future and is looking forward to marketing them in the UK and further afield.”

Innovation Zed’s pipeline includes InsulCheck Connect which the company plans to launch in Q3 2018. InsulCheck Connect automatically collects essential usage data that enables insulin pen users to manage their condition more accurately and more effectively. When paired with a Bluetooth® enabled device, the end-user can view behavioural analysis on their choice of diabetes management applications.

Innovation Zed, an Enterprise Ireland high-potential start-up (HPSU), was co-founded in 2009 by William Cirillo and John Hughes.


Irish Medtech Company Commences Work with the NHS in England

Irish Medtech Company Innovation Zed Commences Work with the NHS in England

Dublin, Ireland, 24th August 2017

Innovation Zed, an Irish medtech company, today announced that it has commenced working with the NHS in South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw, England.

The collaboration sees the company’s novel insulin pen accessory used with diabetes patients as part of a national NHS Test Bed programme exploring new models of care.

InsulCheck Connect, a snap-on accessory for disposable insulin pen users, automatically collects and records pen usage and behaviour data ‘on the go’.

The South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Perfect Patient Pathway Test Bed is one of 7 national Test Bed programmes in England, funded by NHS England to look at new ways of delivering care for patients by working with technology partners.

The InsulCheck Connect device is being offered to diabetic patients at the Northern General Hospital, Sheffield as part of a programme designed to better support them to manage their condition. It is hoped the programme will involve up to 300 diabetes patients in total.

The expectation is that the data collected by InsulCheck Connect, when merged with other data such as sugar level readings, and as part of a new package of support for diabetic patients, will enable them and their medical professionals to improve the management of the condition and generate better health outcomes.

Once the new care models that are being looked at through the Test Bed programme are evaluated, any models and technology that is seen as successfully supporting patients to improve their care could be made available for other parts of the UK to adopt and adapt to the particular needs of their local populations.

Innovation Zed, headquartered at NovaUCD, the Centre for New Ventures and Entrepreneurs at University College Dublin (UCD), was co-founded in 2009 by John Hughes and William Cirillo.

John Hughes, CEO, Innovation Zed, himself an insulin user, said, “I am delighted to have InsulCheck Connect incorporated in the Perfect Patient Pathway Test Bed programme in South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw.” He added, “Our research with insulin pen users highlights that, as with other conditions, injection compliance is significantly below what is prescribed. We firmly believe that this work will demonstrate that our insulin pen accessory can greatly improve injection compliance and generate better health outcomes for people with diabetes.”

Liz Howarth, South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Perfect Patient Pathway Test Bed Programme Director said,

“The Test Bed programme is in place to see whether NHS patients can benefit from using new ways of delivering care, combined with new technologies. It’s very early days but we are looking forward to working with our partners, patients and the evaluation team to assess the impact of this particular project.”

Innovation Zed has been dedicated to pro-actively championing the cause of insulin pen users through academic research, scientific studies, clinical trials and developing innovative products.

InsulCheck Connect is the second in a family of connected products from Innovation Zed. It builds on the company’s popular InsulCheck Classic accessory and is the direct result of an intensive four-year research and development project in University College Dublin, Sweden and Taiwan.

John Hughes concluded, “We have already had significant interest in this family of low-cost, insulin pen add-on from private and national health insurance organisations globally as they seek to improve patient outcomes.”


Innovation Zed Announces Novel Insulin Pen Accessory to Improve Diabetes Management

Innovation Zed Announces Novel Insulin Pen Accessory to Improve Diabetes Management

17 October 2016, Dublin, Ireland

Innovation Zed, an established Irish medtech company, has announced a new add-on accessory for insulin pens to enable more flexible insulin management options for people with diabetes.

InsulCheck Connect automatically collects and records insulin pen usage and behaviour data ‘on the go’. This enables new and more flexible therapies to improve diabetes management and to generate better health outcomes. InsulCheck Connect is the latest addition to the company’s InsulCheck Platform, a range of intelligent add-ons to assist insulin pen users.

The company made the announcement and performed demonstrations at the 2016 PDA Universe of Pre-Filled Syringes & Injection Devices conference held in Huntington Beach, California.

John Hughes, CEO at Innovation Zed – and himself an insulin user – explained, “This platform will result in a considerable step up in the performance and effectiveness for the 100+ million existing insulin pen users, enabling functions similar to pump technologies but at a significantly lower cost.”

“We are delighted to be announcing this important development at an event where so many experts in the field are gathered” he added.

Innovation Zed Ltd operates its Research and Development facility at NovaUCD, the Centre for New Ventures and Entrepreneurs at University College Dublin, Ireland and was co-founded by John Hughes and William Cirillo.

Since 2009 the company has been dedicated to pro-actively championing the cause of insulin pen users through academic research, scientific studies, clinical trials and developing innovative products.

InsulCheck Connect builds on the company’s popular InsulCheck Classic accessory and is the direct result of an intensive three-year research and development project.

“Our research with the insulin pen user population, which represents well over 70% of insulin administration today, shows that compliance is significantly below what is prescribed. We firmly believe there are ways to improve this and generate better health outcomes for people with diabetes,” said Technical Director, William Cirillo.

“What was lacking previously was the automatic collection of evidenced behaviour data to enable precise management of the condition. But through InsulCheck Connect that is now here”, he continued.

Innovation Zed is already working with global pharmaceutical companies and diabetes management software providers in an effort to further integrate this valuable data into their products and services.