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SACCADE Diagnostics, a spin-out from the University of Aberdeen, has devised a rapid eye-movement test called SaccScan that can help medical professionals diagnose a range of psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression within just 30 minutes. It is non-invasive, affordable and easy to administer, allowing non-specialists to operate it with minimal training.
The academic founders, Philip Benson and David St Clair, teamed up with Madhu Nair, who took on the role of commercial champion and CEO. Together they rose to the Challenge in 2013 and ended up winning the top Converge prize!
“Converge Challenge provided us with an incredible opportunity to stress test our business plan at the right time in our spin out journey, develop entrepreneurial thinking and benefit from high-level networks.”
To develop their entrepreneurial skills, Madhu completed a world-leading Saltire Fellowship Programme at Babson College, whilst Philip was awarded a coveted Royal Society of Edinburgh Enterprise Fellowship. Following their Converge Challenge win, the company went on to secure a SMART grant from Scottish Enterprise, which was quickly topped up by a convertible loan from the Department of Health and the Wellcome Trust valued at £1.4m to fund a 3-year multi-centre clinical validation study.
Since then the company has been moving closer to fully commercialising SaccScan. The tool has already been deployed to users globally for mental health research incorporating the study of eye movement abnormalities. In addition to the funds secured at start-up, the company won support from the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 SME Instrument programme and the pilot Innovation Associate programme in 2016. They also won the Innovate UK Global Cooperation Award which saw them develop strategic relationships with top tier supply chain partners. The latest in a string of awards was their first development contract from NHS England through SBRI Healthcare facilitated by the Academic Health Science Network (AHSN). The award enabled them to prototype a shorter version of SaccScan to aid mental health triage by primary care services such as Community Mental Health Teams (CMHTs). The company is now working with hospitals across the country to launch field validation studies in preparation for regulatory market approval and commercial roll out for clinical use.