Seer Medical’s Dr Pip Karoly wins PM’s innovation prize for life-changing epilepsy seizure forecasting app

A founding member of Australian medtech Seer Medical has received national recognition for her breakthrough scientific discoveries, winning one of the 2022 Prime Minister’s Prizes for New Innovators earlier this week.

Seer Medical data scientist and senior research fellow at the University of Melbourne Dr Pip Karoly was recognised for her work which has established new methods for forecasting epileptic seizure risk. She discovered that seizures do not occur randomly, but over long-term cycles that are unique to the individual, while completing her PhD.

As one of its first employees and a founding member of Seer Medical, Karoly led the development of a life-changing mobile app for people living with epilepsy, enabling world-first seizure risk forecasting with a mobile app.

Since its launch in 2017 by co-founders Dr Dean Freestone, Professor Mark Cook and George Kenley, Seer Medical has reimagined how and where people undergo long-term brain and heart monitoring to make diagnosing and forecasting seizure episodes faster and more accurate.

Seer has raised more than $80 million in capital to date from investors including Mayo Clinic, Cochlear, Breakthrough Victoria, EWM Group, SG Hiscock and Giant Leap.

Seer’s solutions include an at-home epilepsy monitoring system and wearable medical devices, mobile apps for tracking and forecasting seizures, and cloud technology that translates big data into useful medical insights.

Seer’s at-home epilepsy diagnosis service has helped more than 13,500 Australians access better medical care and the company has grown to a team of 200 people across offices in Australia, the UK and US.

Karoly says as one of the first team members at Seer she learned the basics of mobile app development, recognising that the delivery of seizure forecasting technology would require them to interface directly with people living with epilepsy in a personalised and engaging way. 

“We needed to be able to collect long-term data on individuals’ seizure occurrence, with a range of possible risk factors and triggers (things like sleep quality, stress, heart rate, exercise, and even the environment or weather conditions can all influence someone’s likelihood of having a seizure),” she told SmartCompany.

Karoly says after seizure risk forecasting was made publicly available in June 2022, their preliminary work with users is showing many find it helpful to manage their anxiety and daily activities. 

“Since launching to the public in June, we have provided personalised seizure forecasts to more than 700 individuals living with epilepsy across Australia and the US,” she said.

“In terms of daily use, this equates to upwards of 600 seizure forecasts each day, and more than 2,100 monthly active users of the Seer app – including seizure event logging, medication reminders and seizure forecasting.

“In many ways, the original scientific breakthroughs and the launch of the seizure risk forecast is a beginning, with our user research (UX) and design team absolutely the heart of the next stage to personalise seizure forecasting technology and maximise its benefits.

According to Karoly, “seizure forecasting is more than just a warning”. 

“For people with epilepsy, being able to see and understand their potential risk of having a seizure means they can better plan their activities around their risk.”