Women in Innovation Success Stories: Oriane Chausiaux, Heartfelt Technologies

Established in response to the challenging symptom monitoring regime patients face after a heart failure admission, Heartfelt Technologies is on a mission to reduce hospital re-admission rates. As Chief Scientific Officer, Dr Oriane Chausiaux worked with her team on pioneering technology that can automatically monitor patients in the comfort of their own home.

When Oriane applied to the Innovate UK Women in Innovation Awards, the device was in its third iteration.

“We had a device that provided rapid feedback for patients without a clinician involved, but we were still rather early on in our R&D journey and felt that refined data presentation via an app for patients would be the next step in our path to commercialisation,” she explained.

Getting the ball rolling

Before embarking on any new business development programme, it’s important to have clear goals in mind. For Oriane, this came down to reaching three key milestones: producing a working app, user testing the app and gathering feedback, and finally evolving the app to optimise its use for patients and their care circles.

The Heartfelt Technologies team were able to put funding received through the programme into these vital steps.

“The financial support from the Innovate UK Women in Innovation Award enabled us to further support individuals with heart failure by monitoring symptoms, medication adherence, and overall heart health, as well as visualising the data from their Heartfelt device on an app,” Oriane said.

Going the extra mile

Building a fully-fledged product on financial support alone can be challenging. To produce something that could really help her audience, Oriane made the most of every opportunity the Women in Innovation Award opened up.

“Business advice, cohort support and speaking to like-minded women provided invaluable support and opportunities.

“Women supporting women has always been of paramount importance to me and throughout this journey I have relished the opportunity to meet, celebrate and collaborate with the very best of women in innovation,” she explained.

Leading a small team through the ups and downs of starting a business can be a lonely experience, but by collaborating with a community of like-minded trailblazers, experts and teachers – Oriane was able to take her plans for Heartfelt Technologies to the next level:

“We are now in the final stages of designing our next version of the Heartfelt device, we have recruited five new team members, won four grants and three awards, had an oversubscribed investment round and been invited by Medicare to submit an IDE-B proposal to have our device funded throughout our US pivotal trial,” she said.

Paving the way to a bright future

When your business is growing from strength to strength, it’s easy to forget what it took to get where you are. In the next year, the team have their hearts set on finishing the next version of their device, rolling out the app and completing their two UK trials. They hope this will lead to the completion of trials in the US so their impact spans far beyond the UK.

But how have these ambitions and successes affected the core of the company and importantly, how has this growth impacted Oriane as a leader?

“It is easy to continue working hard to bring an innovation through R&D to commercialisation without stopping to reflect, but in doing so I am immensely proud.

The last 12 months have been pivotal to the success of our business and I am conscious that I am a role model for women earlier on in their innovation journey. Leveraging this position to be able to mentor and support women in science is a complete privilege,” she said.

Read more success stories from the Innovate UK Women in Innovation Awards.