$2.25M Challenge Seeks Health Care Sensing Technologies

(Photos8.com)

Nokia Corporation, a developer of mobile systems in Espoo, Finland, is sponsoring a challenge to generate innovative ideas for sensing technologies to improve the conduct of health care. The Nokia Sensing X Challenge is conducted with the X-Prize Foundation and has a total prize fund of $2.25 million.

The competition seeks ideas for real-time collection of personal health data, monitoring and maintenance of health conditions, and use with sports and fitness equipment. Technologies can include point-of-care diagnostics, such as lab-on-a-chip devices, that can make health care and life sciences monitoring more widely accessible. Ideas can range from connections to social networks to advanced algorithms for processing data related to more complex conditions like depression or addiction.

The Nokia Sensing X Challenge consists of three separate competitions held over the next 3.5 years. The guidelines require competitors to form teams, with entrants encouraged from private companies, not-for-profit institutions, and academic institutions.

An online intent-to-enter form is requested from teams planning to submit entries. A nominal registration will be required, although the amount of the fee has not yet been announced.

The teams’ entries will be judged on six sets of factors including validity of measurements, relevance to health care or life sciences, originality, interoperability, affordability, and usability — e.g., size, weight, and power and data requirements.

Each of the three competions will have a registration phase, during which time teams may submit their entry materials, including updates of their original submissions if required. A panel of judges will asses the entries and select 10 finalists. The final judging phase will involve direct interactions between finalists and judges, including live presentations or demonstrations.

A similar challenge — the Qualcomm Tricorder X Prize — conducted by Qualcomm Corporation, also with the X-Prize Foundation, is seeking monitors and diagnostics working in or with hand-held devices. Entries into the Nokia challenge may also be submitted to the Qualcomm competition.

Read more:

• $250K Challenge Seeks Post-Hospital Care Ideas
• $100K Challenge Seeks Responsive Insulin Delivery
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