Guidelines Released for $10 Million Qualcomm Tricorder X PRIZE Reveal Health Condition Sets for Winning Solution

More Than 255 Teams from 34 Countries Have Pre-Registered for Global Competition to Revolutionize Healthcare and Empower Consumers to Take an Active Role in Their Health

Las Vegas — The X PRIZE Foundation announced that final competition guidelines have been released and team registration is officially open for the $10 million Qualcomm Tricorder X PRIZE, a 3.5-year global competition to stimulate innovation and integration of precision diagnostic technologies, intended to make reliable health diagnoses available directly to consumers anytime, anywhere. More than 255 teams from 34 countries have already pre-registered.

The announcement was made yesterday at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), just one year after the competition was launched at CES 2012, during a keynote address by Dr. Paul E. Jacobs, chair of the Qualcomm Foundation, and chairman and chief executive officer of Qualcomm Incorporated. Additional information about the competition will also be available at Booth #25321, Las Vegas Convention Center, South Hall 2.

Competing teams in the Qualcomm Tricorder X PRIZE will be expected to develop a device that can detect or monitor three broad groups of conditions or parameters: the core set, vital signs set, and elective set. The core set is composed of conditions that are considered essential to any successful team solution, with many of these already covered by commercially available standalone diagnostic systems or sensors. This set of 12 diseases includes diabetes, atrial fibrillation, stroke, tuberculosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), pneumonia, and hepatitis A, among others.

“Several factors drove us to select the initial medical conditions that the Tricorder must accurately diagnose,” said Dr. Peter H. Diamandis, chairman and CEO, X PRIZE Foundation. “Input came from our medical advisory board as well as from public comment. Overall, we considered the significance of a disease in terms of prevalence, incidence and potential threat, as well as the effectiveness of treatments. In success, the technology created by the teams competing for the Qualcomm Tricorder X PRIZE will allow the consumer to access their state of health in a manner that may assist in the diagnoses of these diseases, anytime, anywhere, all in the palm of their hand.”

The vital signs set is intended to challenge teams to move toward a continuous monitoring and cloud‐based paradigm. These metrics for health include blood pressure, respiratory rate, temperature, electrocardiography and oxygen saturation. Ultimately, a winning device will collect large volumes of data from the ongoing measurement of health states through a combination of wireless sensors, imaging technologies, and portable, non-invasive laboratory replacements. It is anticipated that some of these solutions will be developed as part of the $2.25 million Nokia Sensing X CHALLENGE, a global competition to accelerate the development of sensing technologies that capture and interpret information about our physical state, emotional state and surrounding environment.

The elective set is also composed of important conditions, including pertussis (whooping cough), hypertension, mononucleosis, hyper/hypo thyroidism, food-borne illnesses, melanoma, HIV and osteoporosis, among others. This list is considered more ambitious than the core set in light of the current state of technology.

“Until now, consumers have been forced to rely on a healthcare professional’s expert opinion as the starting point from which care can begin,” said Dr. Paul E. Jacobs. “This competition has the potential to assist and transform this traditional point of care by enabling consumers to constantly monitor their own state of health, easily recognize a number of common conditions, and know when to seek treatment from a physician. By giving consumers access to such diagnostic tools, this prize has the potential to help eliminate unnecessary visits to medical facilities and reduce costs that will ultimately create greater efficiencies in the global healthcare system.”

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 individuals receive care, thus making healthcare more convenient, affordable and accessible. Together, the Qualcomm Tricorder X PRIZE and Nokia Sensing X CHALLENGE will help create an ecosystem of innovative technologies that radically changes the way people understand their state of health – in desirable, convenient ways not previously available.

Competing teams in the Qualcomm Tricorder X PRIZE will also have access to an online marketplace created by the X PRIZE Foundation, where they can connect with individuals and companies to exchange ideas and resources, as well as learn about potential funding opportunities from outside sources.

For more information about the Qualcomm Tricorder X PRIZE, visit: qualcommtricorderxprize.org.
For more information about the Nokia Sensing X CHALLENGE, visit: nokiasensingxchallenge.org.

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ABOUT THE X PRIZE FOUNDATION

Founded in 1995, the X PRIZE Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, is the leading organization solving the world’s Grand Challenges by creating and managing large-scale, high-profile, incentivized prize competitions that stimulate investment in research and development worth far more than the prize itself. The organization motivates and inspires brilliant innovators from all disciplines to leverage their intellectual and financial capital for the benefit of humanity. The X PRIZE Foundation conducts competitions in five Prize Groups: Education, Exploration, Energy & Environment, Global Development and Life Sciences. Active prizes include the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE, the $10 million Archon Genomics X PRIZE presented by Express Scripts, the $10 million Qualcomm Tricorder X PRIZE and the $2.25 million Nokia Sensing X CHALLENGE. For more information, go to www.xprize.org.