BPH Energy (ASX: BPH) investee company Cortical Dynamics has become one of three companies selected for the Biomedical AI Sprints Accelerator (BASA) grant run by Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM) Hub and life sciences organisation MTPConnect.

The grant was established to address a lack of expertise in artificial intelligence (AI) and big data management and to address critical skills shortages within Australia’s life sciences sector.

At the end of the grant period, Cortical expects to have a tailored plan for scaling its innovative applications and leveraging data infrastructure to overcome hurdles in the adoption of AI.

Unlocking AI

ARM Hub chief executive officer Professor Cori Stewart said the grant would help unlock valuable intelligence within Cortical’s business.

“AI and automation are estimated to increase Australia’s productivity by up to 150%,” he said.

“We are already seeing life-changing evidence of the value of AI in biomedicine with accelerated drug discovery, precision medicine and enhanced diagnostics.”

Anaesthetic management

Cortical plans to use the BASA grant to harness data and AI in a way that revolutionises the perioperative management of anaesthetic agents and helps the company become more internationally competitive.

Its core product is the non-invasive brain anaesthesia response (BARM) system, which has been designed to better detect the effects of anaesthetic agents on a patient’s brain activity and aid anaesthetists in keeping patients optimally medicated during surgery.

While current monitoring systems on the market use statistically based empirical approaches, BARM is the first system to employ methods (or algorithms) based on a model of brain electrical activity derived from physiological principles.

EEG interpretation

BARM utilises electroencephalogram (EEG) interpretation to help anaesthetists better administer analgesic and anaesthetic drugs for improved patient outcomes.

The technology is expected to aid the total intravenous administration (TIVA) of drugs during surgeries and significantly reduce the carbon footprint associated with inhaled gases.

The BARM device operates in real time and has been designed with feedback from global key opinion leaders and practitioners.

Cortical said it could potentially result in more accurate predictive outcomes being generated for interpretation and use by clinicians.

BARM addresses a global market of more than 200 million operations per year where a general anaesthetic is administered.