The Nokia Sensing XCHALLENGE has announced its Q3 2014 Winners. According to XPRIZE, a non-profit organization that manages public competitions to advance technological development, the Nokia Sensing XCHALLENGE was offered to accelerate the availability of portable and affordable devices capable of accurately collecting real-time health information. The Nokia Sensing XCHALLENGE consisted of two distinct competitions: the first was held in Q1 2013 and the second was held in Q3 2014. The organization states that, through the Nokia Sensing XCHALLENGE competition, it seeks to accelerate the development of continuous monitoring technologies that track the health of the user, particularly for use in developing countries that lack access to affordable, fast, and reliable diagnostic tests. The competition guidelines focused on whether the entries (1) were relevant to public health needs; (2) advanced sensing technology in a unique and creative way; (3) accurately, reliably, and effectively collected and reported data; (4) were multi-functional and easily integrated with other technologies; and (5) were simple and easy to use for the end user.
XPRIZE recently announced that the Q3 2014 Grand Prize Winner was DNA Medicine Institute (DMI), Inc. of Cambridge, Massachusetts, led by CEO Dr. Eugene Chan. The company received an award of $525,000. DMI’s winning devices, including the rHealth X and X1 models (below middle and right) are intended for the ordinary consumer to diagnose various diseases from a single drop of blood. According to DMI, the devices operate by scanning proprietary diagnostic nanostrips for fluorescence and wirelessly collecting vital signs in real time using an array of sensors that adhere to a subject’s body (the devices can also send the collected data to mobile devices). According to USPTO records, DMI is the assignee of several pending patent applications generally directed towards: Multicoded Analytical Nanostrips; Microfluidic Passive Mixing Chip; Flow Based Clinical Analysis; and Capillary Manipulation of Clinical Samples. DMI is also a finalist for the $10M Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE, another competition managed by XPRIZE that seeks to stimulate innovation in the field of consumer diagnostic devices.
The Nokia Sensing XCHALLENGE also announced five additional Distinguished Award Winners that received an award of $120,000, including:
Biovotion of Zurich, Switzerland, led by CEO Dr. Andreas Caduff, created the Vital Sign Monitoring platform, a wearable armband that collects and analyzes data about various physiological parameters and sends the information to the user’s mobile device.
Eigen Lifescience of Stanford, California, led by Dr. Shan Wang, created the Eigen Diagnostic Platform, a device that uses magnetic field sensors to analyze interchangeable diagnostic cartridges to diagnose various diseases from a drop of blood. The information can be transmitted to the user’s doctor using an accompanying mobile device application.
Endotronix Wireless Health Monitoring of Woodbridge, Illinois, led by CEO Dr. Harry Rowland, created a device that monitors heart disease by measuring pulmonary artery pressure using a sensor implanted into the pulmonary artery. An accompanying device wirelessly retrieves pressure data from the sensor and uploads the data to a secure cloud server.
Golden Gopher Magnetic Biosensing of Minneapolis, MN, led by Dr. Jian-Ping Wang, created the z-Lab, a device that analyzes a combination of samples from the user and magnetic nanoparticles to detect early stage biomarkers of various diseases.
GUES of London, England, led by Dr. Esther Rodriguez-Villegas, created the AcuPebble, a device that continuously senses and monitors a user’s respiratory and cardiac function and sends the resulting data to any mobile device.
