Max Crinion-Morgan is a Drogheda-based nursing undergraduate who has pressed pause on his healthcare career to try his luck as a medtech entrepreneur. His business is called RespÉire and its launch product is a respiration rate reader called the R3.
The idea for the R3 came from Crinion-Morgan’s experience of working on the ward. He noticed that during routine clinical observations, when nurses check blood pressure, heart rate, temperature, oxygen saturation and respiration rate, they had access to devices (such as blood pressure cuffs) to measure four of the five vital signs. The odd one out was respiration rate, which had to be manually assessed. This struck Crinion-Morgan as a significant unmet clinical need, and he decided to do something about it.
He put his nursing degree on hold to start working full-time on the R3 in early 2025. At that point, he wasn’t sure if the idea would fly, but winning a high achievement merit award at Enterprise Ireland’s student entrepreneur awards provided the validation and confidence boost he needed.
He mapped out his concept for the device and talked through its viability with his dad, who is an engineer. He then began looking for someone to make the prototype and struck up a relationship with a research and product development company, Pathfinder Innovations, which built it for him. The bulk of the €10,000 invested in RespÉire so far has gone into getting to this prototype stage.
“I had a passion for science and medicine growing up and originally thought biomedical science was the one for me. However, after a semester at Maynooth University, I realised it wasn’t and that I wanted something more hands-on and patient-facing,” Crinion-Morgan says.
“That’s when I decided to make the switch to general nursing. I fully credit my experience working as a student nurse and healthcare assistant for giving me my insight into clinical need and ultimately sparking the idea for RespÉire.
“Manually measuring respiration is an inefficient and error-prone process that involves staring at a patient’s chest for a full 60 seconds, counting the number of times it rises and falls,” he adds.
“This can be very difficult to do due to the constant disruptions that are commonplace on wards. RespÉire aims to solve the problem by providing a portable, inexpensive, and simple-to-use measuring device that aligns with current clinical workflows.”
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The idea is that the R3, which is small and light, would find a home on the observation trolley alongside other vital-sign-measuring equipment. It is a plug-and-play device with a screen that displays the reading. The R3 is non-invasive and attaches to the patient’s clothing. It takes between 60 and 80 seconds to take a measurement.
“In the classroom, one of the first things we were taught was the importance of observations and especially the importance of respiration rate, which is known to be a difficult vital sign to monitor. However, as soon as I set foot on the ward, I fully understood the organised chaos that is nursing and how the theory of what should happen was quite different from the reality of what actually happens,” Crinion-Morgan says.
“When the nurse finally gets the chance to do the respiration rate, the patient would often begin making small talk, or an alarm would go off, or another nurse would need help with a difficult patient, and so an invalid result was produced. Then the nurse would have to restart the process, turning a simple task into a time pressure burden.”
Crinion-Morgan adds that existing continuous respiratory rate monitoring devices tend to be part of the more complex systems that will ultimately underpin “e-wards” – where one nurse can monitor every patient from the nurses’ station. “The problem is that these devices are expensive, complex and difficult to integrate, so they end up mainly in high dependency units,” he says.
“RespÉire takes a different approach, focusing on spot check measurement on general wards as opposed to continuous monitoring in high dependency units. This means we can position the R3 as a cost-effective, portable solution that is more aligned with current clinical workflows and hospital procurement behaviour. Other systems will become available, but they won’t be in use on general wards for years. RespÉire aims to fill this gap, as until that day comes, nurses are still unsupported, and patients are still deteriorating.”
RespÉire is at that point in its development where every day is a juggling exercise for its young founder, as there are patent and regulatory hoops to jump through, as well as finalising the MPV and building commercial relationships with potential customers such as the Health Service Executive.
“The medtech journey is long and complex, with the regulatory aspects alone taking roughly 18-24 months. As a consequence, I expect it to be 2028 before we launch the device,” says Crinion-Morgan, who is in no rush to accept the investment he’s been offered so far. “I know this is going to be a slow process, so I’d like to hold on to as much equity for as long as possible.”
Crinion-Morgan is candid about the hardest part of the start-up process so far. “It’s dealing with the constant uncertainty and doubt and almost a feeling of imposter syndrome,” he says. “I mean, who am I with no business or medtech background to take on the mountain that is building a medtech company?”
Medtech is certainly not for the faint-hearted, as there is no guarantee of acceptance or success at the end of years of investment and effort. However, at just 22, Crinion-Morgan has the energy and optimism of youth on his side, as well as the gumption to surround himself with older, wiser mentors who have walked the walk.