Finalists for Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE announced

The finalists for the Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE have been announced. The $10 million global competition asks teams to develop a consumer-focused, mobile device capable of diagnosing and interpreting a set of 15 medical conditions and capturing five vital health metrics - much like the medical Tricorder in the TV series Star Trek.

During the qualifying round of the competition, each team was required to submit an entry that addressed safety, user experience and a health assessment evaluation. The judging panel, comprising various digital health and medical industry experts, reviewed 21 team submissions from nine countries and selected the 10 most credible entries.

Announced during the opening ceremony of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society International Conference, the finalists come from a wide range of backgrounds, representing non-profits, academia, start-ups and established device manufacturers from six countries. The 10 teams are:

• Aezon (USA) - a team of student engineers from Johns Hopkins University partnering with the Center for Bioengineering Innovation & Design
• CloudDX (Canada) - a team from medical devices manufacturer Biosign
• Danvantri (India) - a team from technology manufacturer American Megatrends India.
• DMI (USA) - a team from the DNA Medicine Institute partnering with NASA, the National Institutes of Health and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
• Dynamical Biomarkers Group (Taiwan) - a team of physicians, scientists and engineers
• Final Frontier Medical Devices (USA) - a team led by the founders of Basil Leaf Technologies
• MESI Simplifying diagnostics (Slovenia) - a team from diagnostic medical device manufacturer MESI
• Scanadu (USA) - a team from Silicon Valley-based start-up Scanadu
• SCANurse (England) - a team from diagnostic medical manufacturer SCANurse
• zensor (Ireland), a team from clinical sensor and electrode company Intelesens.

“Our selected finalists represent the most promising and innovative submissions as determined by our expert judging panel,” said Grant Campany, senior director, Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE. “We want consumers to take a more proactive approach to managing their health, and having convenient access to real-time medical data will do just that.”

As part of the final round, teams will compete in both diagnostic experience evaluations and consumer testing throughout 2015. The final judging and awards ceremony will take place in early 2016.

“The technologies being created for the Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE can have an exponential, global impact, not only on remotely diagnosing diseases but on a myriad of other medical areas, including continuous health monitoring, disease prevention and chronic disease management,” said Rick Valencia, senior vice president and general manager, Qualcomm Life.

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