Dizziness device goes national to help speed up diagnosis
A device which aims to help the diagnosis of dizziness problems, is being tested by patients across the country in a research study.
The Continuous Ambulatory Vestibular Assessment (CAVA) device has been created in partnership between ourselves and UEA to speed up the diagnosis of the most common causes of dizziness by analysing hours of eye and head movement data.
The lightweight and durable device has been developed over the last six years by a team led by ENT Consultant John Phillips at NNUH and Prof Stephen Cox in the School of Computing Sciences at UEA and is supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).
Around 20 hospitals across the country are taking part in the latest clinical trial, which involves hundreds of patients wearing the device who have the most common causes of vertigo to help train an AI algorithm to identify moments of dizziness within several hundred hours of data.
CAVA is designed to be worn daily for many weeks by dizziness sufferers, and the data it records is then analysed by a computer to identify periods of dizziness and to suggest their possible cause.
John said: “We are pleased that the UK patent for CAVA has been approved and we are awaiting the US patent, and we believe the device can hugely help society by using technology to help diagnose patients in the community.
“We currently have 600 days of data and an AI algorithm developed by the team at the UEA will help to analyse that information. We have some international links with a site in the US who would like to use CAVA and we are exploring its potential use for non-balance problems.
“We are also looking at the next evolution of the device after getting a lot of patient feedback to make it lighter and more efficient.”