| Company name: | Brainberry/BrainBerry | Contact name & Job Title | Kartheka Bojan, CEO |
| Project title: | COSMA App Clinical Trial | Month/year | May 2023 |
| Style of case study: | Written | Account Manager | Victoria Patel |
| Case study owner/ writer/producer | Sam Burbage | Third party assigned? |
| The background to the case study / Storyboarding |
| Kartheka Bojan founded BrainBerry in 2015 based on her personal experience with her grandmother’s Parkinson’s disease journey. By the end of 2017, BrainBerry completed the development of a therapy software focused on mental well-being, which underwent a pilot study involving 20 healthy volunteers. Through brainwave measurements, the study showed brain region activation and cognitive improvements with the use of the gamified cognitive app for early dementia.BrainBerryBrainBerry |
| The challenge / trigger event / the service, product or project in question |
| BrainBerry – a company that has developed an effective treatment system for mental health and neurological conditions, the only technology which enables the power of AI to enable targeted and personalised therapy for people living with dementia, PTSD, depression etc.
BrainBerry’s technology is a brain-stimulating gamification app with an advanced wearable headset measuring brain activity, and providing targeted treatment, with a first-mover advantage in the global market. The technology helps significant patient benefit, cost reduction for healthcare systems and accelerates aid for successful drug-discovery trials for neurological and psychiatric conditions..BrainBerryBrainBerry |
| The solution |
| Through the SoLSTICE project, BrainBerryBrainBerrymet with an Innovation Advisor, who worked with them to identify the best way to test how effective the company’s COSMA software would be in treating Alzheimer’s and Dementia. Medilink Midlands was able to utilise its network and put the company in touch with the East Midlands Academic Health Science Network, who, through the SoLSTICE project, were able to part-fund a Medical Technology Trials grant.
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| The results / evaluation |
| The Medical Technology Trials grant allowed clinical testing of the COSMA software to take place, and this in turn has helped to show that regular use of the COSMA app may be effective in helping to treat early dementia. Users saw improvements of 36% in cognitive processing, decision-making and motivation, 60% improvement in motor skills and a significant suppression of negative mood over a 1-month period. BrainBerry has pubished 3 peer-reviewed papers on the clinical results of the clinical trials. Further clinical testing was needed however, and BrainBerryBrainBerry’s performance has also led to the company winning in the innovation category of the Super Connect for Good 2021 Awards and winning a 900,000 Innovate UK funding in 2023 to develop the therapeutic AI model for dementia and stroke |
| Medilink Midlands’s role/Quote from the company |
| “Medilink and the East Midlands Academic Health Science Network’s support and Medical Technology Trials funding has been vital in helping us to develop our COSMA dementia cognitive app and clinically validate its efficacy on dementia patients.. This has enabled us to show that our technology is effective in treating dementia and this in turn has allowed us to apply for and win additional funding to further develop our product. Without the Medical Technology Trials funding, we would have been unable to deliver demonstrable improvements in patient symptoms and progressed with our innovation.” Kartheka Bojan, CEO. |
| Medilink Midlands’s role/Quote from the Advisor | |
| “Medilink Midlands champions innovation as a driver of economic growth in the life sciences sector and the Midlands region. BrainBerry’s COSMA is a world first, representing the only clinically validated, therapeutic gamified app capable of generating quantitative cognitive data. Via our links with the East Midlands Academic Health Science Network, and our close working with BrainBerry, we were able to help them conduct the necessary testing to advance their technology to the next stage.” | |
| Environmental and Corporate Social Responsibility (to be completed by the company) | |
| What actions do the company take to increase their Corporate Social and/or Environmental Responsibility?
Examples include: · Equal Opportunities – At BrainBerry, we value diverse cultures, perspectives and experiences. We are committed to recruiting and developing the most talented people of all backgrounds, and leveraging their talents to make a difference for patients. Grounded in our values, we strive to be a diverse and inclusive employer. · Community Involvement – At BrainBerry, we formed an internal Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) group that included members of the community, such as carers, people in the early stages of dementia, and family members with dementia. This internal PPI group was an invaluable part of our design process for the headset development and the associated technology solutions. PPI has been a key element of our research and development and product development process. |
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| Additional information |
| University-supported enterprise picks up regional award – https://le.ac.uk/news/2021/december/brainberry
BrainBerry wins the HealthTech Award in the Global Competition for Good 2021 across Europe – https://tbtech.co/business/leadership/super-connect-for-good-2021-top-10-startups-and-scaleups-for-good-announced/ |