Ciara Clancy is no ordinary entrepreneur, with her company Beats Medical far less concerned with making money than it is with helping people live with various neurological conditions.
At the age of just 29, Ciara Clancy’s work in helping people to live with the likes of Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s, dyspraxia and the effects of stroke are unparalleled on the island of Ireland.
Speaking to host Tadhg Enright on this week’s The Architects of Business, in partnership with EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™, Ciara reveals the reason why she left behind her career as a physiotherapist.
A highly driven and passionate individual, Ciara wanted to create technology – based on Metronome Therapy, which helps Parkinson’s sufferers in particular – that would make it as easy for those living with these life-changing conditions to get around at home as it would be under medical supervision.
“I remember the exact moment that I decided I wanted to found Beats Medical,” Ciara – a 2016 finalist in the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™ programme – reveals.
“A person with Parkinson’s disease was coming into me for this Metronome Therapy in a hospital, and he was 20 minutes late and I went out to find him stuck, frozen at the main entrance.
“And this was happening everywhere we went, every door he went through, and I knew that when he came into clinic he walked very well with Metronome Therapy but he’d go home and this would persist, and it was at that point I said I can’t go 20 years into my career and not try. I need to find a way to bring this treatment into the home.
“That’s when I decided to step out of my career as a physio and volunteer with a Parkinson’s charity to understand needs outside of the hospital. And really that’s how Beats Medical was born.”