![The $10 Million Qualcomm Tricoder X PRIZE [image courtesy X PRIZE Foundation].](https://cccblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Hand_holding_new_tricorder_2.png "The $10 Million Qualcomm Tricoder X PRIZE [image courtesy X PRIZE Foundation].")
Last May, the X PRIZE Foundation and Qualcomm announced that they were joining forces to develop a competition to enhance integrated digital health. Earlier today, in his keynote at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, NV, Qualcomm CEO Dr. Paul E. Jacobs announced the $10 million competition — with the aim of stimulating innovation and creating a new category of consumer device that “empowers the individual to become the ‘CEO of [his or her] own health’.”
According to the X PRIZE Foundation:
The Qualcomm Tricorder X PRIZE is a $10 million competition to stimulate innovation and integration of precision diagnostic technologies, making definitive health assessment available directly to “health consumers.”
The dire need for improvements in health and healthcare in the U.S. has captured the attention of government, industry, and private citizens for years. But a viable solution has yet evaded one of the most technologically advanced, educated and prosperous nations on the globe. Integrated diagnostic technology, once available on a consumer mobile device that is easy to use, will allow individuals to incorporate health knowledge and decision-making into their daily lives.
Advances in fields such as artificial intelligence, wireless sensing, imaging diagnostics, lab-on-a-chip, and molecular biology will enable better choices in when, where, and how consumers receive care, thus making healthcare more convenient, affordable, and accessible. The winner will be the team whose technology most accurately diagnoses a set of diseases independent of a healthcare professional or facility, and that provides the best consumer user experience with their device.
The $10 million bounty will go to the first team that can create “a mobile platform that most accurately diagnoses a set of 15 diseases across 30 [patients] in three days,” according to published reports.
More as we hear it — and be sure to check out the X PRIZE Foundation website for the latest on today’s announcement.
(Contributed by Erwin Gianchandani, CCC Director)
