A dozen mHealth entrepreneurs from the United States, Japan, the UK and Israel have been chosen as finalists for the Nokia Sensing XChallenge, which seeks to develop mobile medical sensors that can capture meaningful data about a wearer's health and the surrounding environment.
"We are extremely pleased with the impressive array of new technologies demonstrated by all of the teams in the competition, and our selected finalists represent the most promising and innovative submissions as determined by our expert judging panel," said Mark Winter, senior director of the Nokia Sensing XChallenge, in a press release. "Our teams are using new medical evidence and a variety of technologies to create sensor solutions that either didn't exist previously or were only available as laboratory devices. Their significant and important improvements in sensors and sensing technologies could empower people to take a more proactive approach to managing their health by giving them convenient access to real-time personal health data."
The competition, unveiled at last year's Wireless-Life Science Alliance's Convergence Summit in San Diego, is part of the X PRIZE competition, launched in 1995 to foster competitions that stimulate investment in research and development in education, exploration, energy and the environment, global development and the life sciences.
According to officials, finalists were required to submit proposals that "present a solution that will accurately, reliably and effectively collect meaningful data that can be used for identification or diagnosis of a disease, medical condition or pattern of health." In all, 26 entries were submitted.
Teams are competing for a $525,000 grand prize and as many as five Distinguished Awards, which are valued at $120,000 apiece. The winners will be announced at the Health 2.0 Fall Conference on October 2 in Silicon Valley.
"While there has been an influx of market activity around health and fitness applications, medical diagnostic and sensing technologies for consumers remains scarce," said Henry Tirri, Nokia's chief technology officer and executive vice president, in the release. "Through this competition and the selection of the finalist teams, we're eager to see the developments in consumer-focused applications and technologies that will potentially transform the way healthcare is delivered across the globe on multiple levels, including monitoring, prevention, diagnosis and disease management."
In introducing the Nokia Sensing XChallenge at last year's WLSA event, Paul Jacobs, PhD, chairman and CEO of Qualcomm, said the advent of mobile medical devices will change a healthcare system that’s “bankrupting the developed world and inaccessible in the developing world.” Devices like the smartphone and tablet, he said, will allow the patient to take charge of his or her healthcare, create a portal for exchanging information with healthcare providers at any time, and drastically reduce unnecessary and wasteful medical costs.
This competition is being run in conjunction with another X PRIZE challenge launched in January 2012 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. That contest, supported by Qualcomm, is offering $10 million to the first team to develop a medical tricorder, a mobile medical device popularized in the “Star Trek” TV and movie series. More than 180 teams from 25 countries are participating in that contest.
The finalists are:
- ABUS-urodynamics, of Asahikawa, Japan;
- apollo, of Pittsburgh;
- Elfi-Tech, of Rehovot, Israel;
- Holomic, of Los Angeles;
- i-calQ, of Salt Lake City;
- InSilixa, of Sunnyvale, Calif.;
- MoboSens, of Urbana, Ill.;
- Nanobiosym Health RADAR, of Cambridge, Mass.;
- Owlstone, of Cambridge, UK;
- Programmable-Bio-Nano-Chip, of Houston;
- QUASAR, of San Diego; and
- Silicon BioDevices, of Palo Alto, Calif.
