Top Prize Awarded

Back along, I mentioned an innovative new test that researchers from Aberdeen were investigating into assisted diagnosis of psychiatric disorders in adults via detected eye movements.

This very research study is now the recipient of  am award from a well thought of national contest  recognising Scotland's entrepreneurial innovations.

 The research specifically was looking onto the detection and identification of illnesses like severe depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The top prize of £60,000 was awarded to the team from the University of Aberdeen School of Psychology  who beat five other finalists in the Converge Challenge Awards for 2013 for their commercialization plan to use the test in main stream mental health care.

The test was designed to assist clinicians come to an informed diagnosis for such mental health conditions much sooner thereby allowing the treatment process to start more quickly. There are no objective diagnostic tests currently in use to validate clinicians decisions.

The simple eye movement tests can recognise schizophrenia and other major psychiatric disorders with better than 95% accuracy and within 30 minutes – a step change for psychiatry. The need is significant with 1 in 5 adults suffering from some form of mental ill health during their lifetime and 5% developing major psychiatric disorders.