New partnership aims to speed narcolepsy diagnosis using AI
Beacon Biosignals' platform joins with Project Sleep's advocacy community
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A new partnership aims to help people with narcolepsy and idiopathic hypersomnia receive an earlier diagnosis.
Beacon Biosignals has partnered with the nonprofit Project Sleep to help people with narcolepsy and idiopathic hypersomnia receive an earlier diagnosis.
The collaboration will bring together Beacon’s artificial intelligence (AI)-powered platform and Project Sleep’s community of patients, advocates, and scientists to improve access to diagnostic testing, gather feedback on home-based sleep studies, and connect more people with clinical research opportunities.
“Improving patients’ lives is central to Beacon’s mission,” Jacob Donoghue, MD, PhD, Beacon’s CEO, said in a company press release. “Project Sleep has spent more than a decade building trust in this community and amplifying patient voices. Working alongside them enables us to use our technology to find and treat people with disorders of hypersomnia [excessive daytime sleepiness] sooner.”
Focus groups will gather feedback on testing
Narcolepsy affects the brain’s ability to regulate sleep and wakefulness, leading to an overwhelming urge to sleep during the day, disrupted nighttime sleep, cognitive issues, and mood changes.
According to Beacon, people with narcolepsy or idiopathic hypersomnia, another sleep condition marked by excessive daytime sleepiness, may face long delays until diagnosis. These delays can impact patients’ education, employment, relationships, and quality of life.
Beacon uses electroencephalography devices that record the brain’s electrical activity, along with AI-based tools for analysis. According to the company, the technology enables measurements at home to collect sleep biomarkers that may prove useful for clinical research and for providing a better understanding and treatment of neurological conditions.
Project Sleep is a patient-led organization that aims to raise awareness of sleep disorders and improve sleep health education. Its initiatives include Sleep Helpline, a free service offering support to people experiencing sleep-related difficulties, and Rising Voices, a program that trains patient advocates in spreading awareness of sleep disorders.
[Beacon’s] network supports enrollment in clinical research, where Project Sleep plays a central role by connecting its community to sleep disorder studies from both industry and academic sponsors.
Through the partnership, Beacon and Project Sleep aim to identify people who may be living with narcolepsy or idiopathic hypersomnia but have not been diagnosed, and help those already diagnosed access appropriate treatments.
A central part of the collaboration will involve focus groups to gather input from patients and caregivers on testing. This feedback will help inform Beacon’s national home sleep testing network.
“That network supports enrollment in clinical research, where Project Sleep plays a central role by connecting its community to sleep disorder studies from both industry and academic sponsors,” the press release stated.
“Our community has always been ready to participate in research and to help solve the diagnostic delay that so many of us lived through,” said Julie Flygare, Project Sleep’s president and CEO. “What has been missing is a way to relay those insights to the people building diagnostic tools and novel therapeutics. This partnership creates that link, and it treats patients as contributors rather than subjects.”
The organizations said their joint activities would begin immediately. Beacon is scheduled to participate in Project Sleep’s seventh annual Sleep Advocacy Forum on Oct. 26 in Washington, D.C.
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