The Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE was an inducement prize contest announced on May 10, 2011, sponsored by Qualcomm Foundation. It officially launched on January 10, 2012. The $10 million prize is awarded for creating a mobile device that can "diagnose patients better than or equal to a panel of board certified physicians". The name is taken from the tricorder device in ''

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vari ...

'' which can be used to instantly diagnose ailments. The focus of the competition guidelines was towards clinical symptoms, versus accurate measurement of test values. Although no team successfully met all the requirements of the grand prize, the competition was concluded in April 2017 when the XPRIZE Foundation awarded reduced prizes to the strongest performing teams. For the first time at any XPRIZE, the leftover funds from the main prize purse were earmarked for further development, consumer testing, and commercialization of tricorder prototypes for the two finalists and four semi-finalist teams as part of the Post Prize Initiative.

Prize details

The Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE originally offered a US$7 million grand prize, US$2 million second prize, and US$1 million third prize to the best among the finalists offering an automatic non-invasive health diagnostics system that meets the following requirements. The final contest rules deviated from a single portable device and allowed the contestants to utilize multiple devices (as a system), thus moving away from the concept of a Star Trek tricorder. This rule expansion allowed teams to utilize some existing off-the-shelf add-ons or modifications to meet the aims of the competition. *Weighs no more than 5 pounds (2.3 kg) *Able to autonomously diagnose 13 medical conditions (12 diseases and the 'absence of conditions'), including

anemia Anemia or anaemia (British English) is a blood disorder in which the blood has a reduced ability to carry oxygen due to a lower than normal number of red blood cells, or a reduction in the amount of hemoglobin. When anemia comes on slowly, t ...

, atrial fibrillation,

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a type of progressive lung disease characterized by long-term respiratory symptoms and airflow limitation. The main symptoms include shortness of breath and a cough, which may or may not produce ...

(COPD),

diabetes Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ...

, leukocytosis,

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severit ...

otitis media Otitis media is a group of inflammatory diseases of the middle ear. One of the two main types is acute otitis media (AOM), an infection of rapid onset that usually presents with ear pain. In young children this may result in pulling at the ear, ...

, sleep apnea, and urinary tract infection . The contest rules focused more on diagnosis versus monitoring or treatment of medical conditions. *Able to continuously record and stream the 5 main vital signs:

blood pressure Blood pressure (BP) is the pressure of circulating blood against the walls of blood vessels. Most of this pressure results from the heart pumping blood through the circulatory system. When used without qualification, the term "blood pressure ...

, heart rate, oxygen saturation, respiratory rate and

temperature Temperature is a physical quantity that expresses quantitatively the perceptions of hotness and coldness. Temperature is measured with a thermometer. Thermometers are calibrated in various temperature scales that historically have relied o ...

. The name is taken from the tricorder device from the science fiction TV series ''

'' which can be used to instantly diagnose ailments. The prize was initially announced by the X PRIZE Foundation on 10 May 2011 and subsequently launched on 10 January 2012 at CES 2012. Devices were sent to the

University of California San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...

to be independently tested on patients during the winter and spring of 2015, and again in late 2016 at the Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute (ACTRI) at UCSD.

Final round

The two teams to compete in consumer testing round: *Dynamical Biomarkers Group (Taiwan), Team led by Chung-Kang Peng of the

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is cons ...

. *Final Frontier Medical Devices (USA) - Team led by brothers Basil and George Harris, founders of Basil Leaf Technologies.

Teams selected

The 10 teams to be selected to compete are: *Aezon (USA) - Student engineers team from

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...

partnering with the Center for Bioengineering Innovation & Design. *Cloud DX (Canada) - Team from medical devices company Cloud DX, Inc and led by company chief medical officer Sonny Kohli. *Danvantri (India) - Team from technology company American Megatrends India and led by Sridharan Mani. *DMI (USA) - Team led by Eugene Y. Chan of the DNA Medicine Institute partnering with

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedin ...

, the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the lat ...

and the

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), a merging of the William H. Gates Foundation and the Gates Learning Foundation, is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it was l ...

. *Dynamical Biomarkers Group (Taiwan) - Team led by Chung-Kang Peng of the

. *Final Frontier Medical Devices (USA) - Team led by brothers Basil and George Harris, founders of Basil Leaf Technologies. * MESI (

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, and ...

) - Team from medical device company MESI, partnering with

Jozef Stefan Institute Jozef or Józef is a Dutch, Breton, Polish and Slovak version of masculine given name Joseph. A selection of people with that name follows. For a comprehensive list see and .. * Józef Beck (1894–1944), Polish foreign minister in the 1930s ...

, D.Labs, and Gigodesign, led by Jakob Susteric. *SCANADU (USA) - Team from SCANADU, led by Walter De Brouwer. *SCANurse (UK) - Team from medical company SCANurse, led by Anil Vaidya. *Zensor (Ireland) - Team from medical company Intelesens, led by Jim McLaughlin.

Conclusion of the contest

In the end, no team met all the requirements needed to win the full prize purse for a minimally invasive health diagnostics system that could meet the guidelines of diagnosis set forth by the contest rules. In April 2017 X PRIZE Foundation made the following awards for a total of $3.7 million: * $2.6 million to Final Frontier Medical Devices as the highest performing team * $1 million to Dynamical Biomarkers Group for second place * $100,000 to Cloud DX as the first Bold Epic Innovator, "in recognition of exponential technological progress in the field of consumer-focused medical technologies, and potential for expanding access to healthcare when deployed at scale". The rest of the original $10 million prize purse was diverted to ongoing consumer testing to get tricorder technology into the hands of patients ($3.8 million) and adapting tricorders for use in hospitals in developing countries ($1.6 million).

References

External links