What used to be science fiction floating through space might become reality here on Earth, and reasonably soon.
Thirty-four teams of entrepreneurs from nine different countries are in the running to turn an iconic 'Star Trek' device into mHealth reality — and Qualcomm is offering $10 million to the winner through its Tricorder XPRIZE contest, which seeks to create a mobile medical scanner similar to the one used by “Bones” McCoy in the original 1960s series – and repurposed in various forms through the many offshoots and movies since then.
The 3.5-year competition envisions a device capable of diagnosing and interpreting 15 different conditions and capturing vital health metrics. The winning device, in fact, is expected to accurately diagnose a set of diseases, including diabetes, stroke, tuberculosis, pneumonia, hepatitis A, COPD and atrial fibrillation, as well as capture real-time biometric data like temperature, respiratory rate and blood pressure.
"Ultimately, this tool will collect large volumes of data from ongoing measurement of health states through a combination of wireless sensors, imaging technologies and portable, non-invasive laboratory replacements," the contest's overview states.
The overview further states that while the device's appearance and functionality can be determined by the team, it must weight no more than five pounds.
“These teams and their technologies represent a significant transformation in healthcare through the convergence of wireless technologies and health,” said Don Jones, vice president of global strategy and market development for San Diego-based Qualcomm Life, in a prepared statement.
Groups from the United States, Greece, India, Poland, South Korea, Slovenia, Taiwan and the Netherlands are in the running, officials said, with more than 20 percent coming from academia or non-profit organizations. The teams will be submitting their devices to a judging panel in May 2014.
Among the competitors is Jack Andraka, a 16-year-old Maryland high school student who made headlines recently for inventing a revolutionary test for the rapid and early detection of certain cancers.
Andraka, who recently appeared on the Comedy Channel's "Colbert Report" and made a surprise appearance at the WLSA's recent Wireless Health 2103 Academic and Industry Conference in Baltimore, was the winner of the $75,000 2012 Gordon E. Moore Award, the grand prize of the Intel Science and Engineering Fair. The teen-ager, who'd lost an uncle to pancreatic cancer and later learned that 85 percent of those cancer diagnoses are detected too late, developed a dipstick-type diagnostic test for pancreatic cancer using a paper sensor similar to a diabetic test strip. The test is 90 percent accurate in detecting the biomarker for pancreatic cancer and also effective in detecting ovarian and lung cancer.
Andraka is part of Generation Z, a team of students under the age of 20, many of whom are still in high school. Other teams include Aegle, composed of students from Johns Hopkins University; Doc-In-Box, based in Tempe, Ariz.; Scanadu, based in Moffett Field, Calif.; Phrazer, based in Duluth, Minn., Seattle-based Visualant; Montreal-based TactioHealth; the Photon Institute of Cracow, Poland; Nanobiosym Gene-RADAR of Cambridge, Mass.; and the appropriately named SMART McCoy team of Carlsbad, Calif.
“We are excited about the caliber of teams registered in the competition,” said Eileen Bartholomew, senior vice president of XPRIZE, in a press release. “The diversity among the participants illustrates the wide range of possibilities in delivering breakthrough solutions to empower consumer health management. These teams will play an integral role in driving this new era of personalized healthcare.”
Following the judging process next May, as many as 10 teams will be selected to advance to a final round in August 2014. Those entries will be evaluated by both a judging panel and a consumer testing panel on health assessment capabilities and user experience.
The competition was developed by Peter Diamandis, chairman and CEO of the XPRIZE Foundation, along with Qualcomm’s Jones and the company’s CEO Paul E. Jacobs, and unveiled at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
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