John Terry | TechExeter Conference 2024

From Blackboard to Bedside: How mathematics became a regulated software-as-a-Medical-Device

30 min talk Entry level ⌨️ Tech + Software

In this talk I describe how some scribbled equations on a blackboard were turned into a regulated medical device. In doing so, I will introduce concepts from mathematical modelling, machine learning and statistics that enable us to describe the brain and understand what makes some brain’s prone to seizures. Shifting gears, I will talk through some of the journey that has seen the development of a software tool that takes routinely acquired clinical data and through personalised brain models gives an objective rating of the likelihood of epilepsy being the cause of symptoms being experienced.

Key Takeaways

How maths is useful
How to start a MedTech company

Bio (continued)

As a University Professor, John and his team have pioneered the development and application of mathematical models and machine learning tools to bring new understanding of how the brain works and the conditions under which neurological conditions, such as epilepsy, can emerge. His research has included a number of first-of-its-kind studies with applications in diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of epilepsy.

In 2018 John and his colleague Dr Wessel Woldman spunout Neuronostics from the University of Exeter, as a vehicle to bring the power of these research findings into the hands of clinicians. This has resulted in BioEP, a clinical decision support tool for revealing epilepsy likelihood from clinical data currently disregarded as being non-informative. BioEP is regulated by the MHRA and the company are ISO13485 certified. John has been the driving force behind building Neuronostics, personally raising almost £5M in government grants (£2.6M) and equity investments (£2.2M).

John currently holds a prestigious £2M EPSRC Established Career Fellowship and was the recent recipient of TechSpark Founder of the Year in 2024 for his leadership of Neuronostics.