Nokia Sensing X Challenge, with a prize money of $2.25 million, has been running for two years now and has attracted quite a number of contestants with amazing innovations and ideas. The main aim behind this initiative is to promote improved access to health care. This year’s experts’ panel has awarded the annual prize to Massachusetts-based DNA Medical Institute (DMI) that made a hand-held gadget capable of identifying ailments in minutes after requiring only a single drop of blood. The DMI team won the prize from a pool of eleven finalists and the gadget is known as rHealth.
Dr. Peter H. Diamandis, Chairman and CEO of X Prize (the foundation that started the competition) said, “Our expert judging panel reviewed a very exciting group of sensing technologies, all with the potential to address a wide array of diagnostic and personal health needs. DMI’s rHealth system embodies the original goal of the Nokia Sensing X Challenge, to advance sensor technology in a way that will enable faster diagnoses and easier, more sophisticated personal health monitoring.”
The rHealth works using only a drop of the user’s blood and tests it with nano-scale test strips to analyze blood by streaming it past lasers. As a result, the gadget can identify ailments like simple flu and even Ebola – which was given Gold Standard accuracy. It has a wearable patch that monitors the vital signs and can share data with rHealth and even a smartphone via Bluetooth.
DMI CEO Dr. Eugene Chan said, “To be selected from such an impressive group of worthy competitors is extremely humbling. Our hope is that the rHealth system, once commercialized, will enable consumers to monitor their own health while on-the-go in a more efficient manner and alert them of more serious medical concerns almost immediately.” The team has won $525,000 as winners of the Sensing X Challenge.
