A SUMMERTOWN firm’s technology is set to transform treatment for thousands of stroke victims.

Brainomix’s medical imaging software e-ASPECTS automatically assesses brain CT scans to gauge how much damage has been done.

This allows frontline doctors to quickly and reliably interpret the scans the way only a top neurologist would be able to.

Chief executive Dr Michalis Papadakis said: “The signs of stroke damage are very subtle and requires decades of experience to diagnose.

“Our technology speeds up diagnosis and treatment and, as a stroke is a brain attack, every second counts.”

The technology was one of many medical breakthroughs highlighted at the Oxford Technology Showcase on Tuesday.

Almost 300 scientists, clinicians, entrepreneurs and academics were at Woodstock Road’s Mathematics Institute to hear about technology breakthroughs that will revolutionise health care and hospitals in the future.

Speakers included National Data Guardian for health and social care and chairwoman of the OUHT NHS Trust, Dame Fiona Caldicott and author Ben Goldacre.

The audience heard social media, including Twitter and Facebook, will help patients take control of their own care.

Email reminders and texts will be used to urge recovering patients to exercise and take medication.

New technology will mean patients don’t have to go into hospital as often and will be able to choose when to connect with a doctor via a webcam or their computer.

Dementia was another topic discussed by Prof Simon Lovestone, of Oxford University’s Translational Neuroscience department.

It is estimated 800,000 people in the UK have dementia, which costs the NHS £20bn a year. The number is expected to rise to one million by 2050.

Prof Lovestone said medical information, such as the UK Biobank, will help spot those at risk of Alzheimer’s before symptoms start.

He said: “If we were able to treat people in pre-clinical stage could prevent disease from becoming manifest.”

Simon Gray, of Isis Innovation, said: “What is on show here is a snapshot of the future.”

Dr Goldacre, who wrote best sellers Bad Science and Bad Pharma and is a senior clinical research fellow at Oxford University’s Centre for Evidence Based Medicine said: “Oxford has a lot of potential for innovation but it’s completely hamstrung by its property crisis.

“If you look at start-ups and innovators in some areas they go and sit in a cheap, shared home while they pull it all together but you can’t do that in a town where property is 15 times the average wage.

“That’s why all the big start-ups are going to Reading, instead.”