Is a Star Trek-Style Tricorder Here?

When Dr. Sonny Kohli was volunteering in Haiti in 2010 he found himself in a hospital that lacked basic diagnostic equipment.

As he worked to fix a broken EKG unit with duct tape and wires, he asked a simple question: Why don’t I have a smartphone-connected EKG?

From Science Fiction to the Clinic

Tricorders, used in the Star Trek universe, refer to the device’s three primary functions: sensing, computing and recording. To get one with light and sound effects, (but without anything in the way of a useful function), one only needs to order online.

However, real life is now catching up to the future as depicted in the 1960s. Dr. Kohli is turning science fiction into reality as the chief medical officer of Cloud DX Inc., a Kitchener, Ontario-based startup with the world’s first working tricorder-like health device.

The idea behind a real tricorder is simple to describe and hard to build. Instead of sending a patient to separate machines for blood pressure, heart rhythm, oxygen levels and lab tests, one portable kit would take the readings and help work out what’s wrong. In places like the Haitian hospital Dr. Kohli worked in, where equipment is scarce or broken, that could mean a diagnosis that otherwise wouldn’t happen at all.

With such promising technology, it’s no surprise Cloud DX has been chosen as one of 17 Canadian companies taking part in the C100’s upcoming 48hrs in the Valley program.

Congratulations to the next 48Hrs in the Valley Cohort!! https://t.co/nndPb4yfBC See you in June! #C10048Hrs pic.twitter.com/6Hhkt6zRII

— C100 (@theC100) May 9, 2016

What Social Media Is Saying

So what’s being said in social media about Cloud DX?

Terms like “Star Trek” and “tricorder” appear thanks to this article by Communitech, which was shared by an influential account, Invest Ontario.

Saving lives, Star Trek style: @CloudDx wearable closes in on Tricorder X-Prize https://t.co/AYGQEU96B7 via @fillfrok

— Communitech (@Communitech) May 7, 2016

The Tricorder Xprize

The terms “Qualcomm” and “Xprize” appear in the discussion because the device, called Vitaliti, is one of seven finalists in Qualcomm’s $10 million Tricorder Xprize.

One of many Xprize competitions, the tricorder prize challenges entrepreneurs to create a portable, wireless device that can diagnose 13 conditions and real-time monitor 5 health vital signs without intervention from a doctor.

Watch Dr. Kohli talk about the competition and why devices like Vitaliti are so important:

Team Cloud DX – Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE https://t.co/CYjqHP9YpS via @YouTube

— Science Avalon NL (@AvalonScience) February 20, 2016

How the Competition Ended

The Tricorder Xprize wrapped up in April 2017, and nobody took home the full grand prize. Final Frontier Medical Devices, a Pennsylvania family team led by brothers Basil and George Harris, was named the winner and received $2.6 million for its device, DxtER, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. Second place and $1 million went to Dynamical Biomarkers Group, a Taiwanese team led by Harvard Medical School’s Chung-Kang Peng and backed by smartphone maker HTC.

Most of the rest of the money went toward getting the technology to patients. The Qualcomm Foundation committed $3.8 million to further consumer testing, and the Roddenberry Foundation, set up by the son of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, pledged $1.6 million to adapt tricorders for hospitals in developing countries. That last part would have been close to Dr. Kohli’s heart, given where his idea began.

Cloud DX didn’t make the final two, but it wasn’t sent home empty-handed. The Xprize Foundation describes Team Cloud DX as Canada’s entry in the competition and the first ever recipient of its Bold Epic Innovator Award.

What Happened to Cloud DX

Cloud DX is still based in Kitchener. Rather than a single tricorder, the company has built what it calls its Connected Health platform, a set of devices and software for monitoring patients from a distance, with the devices and software developed in Kitchener. Its website now centres on remote patient monitoring, and it notes that the Vitaliti wearable is available for research use only, not for sale or for diagnosis.

That’s a common path for ambitious medical hardware. A device that can diagnose a dozen conditions at home is a great competition goal, but every diagnostic claim needs regulatory approval. Monitoring vital signs remotely and passing the readings to doctors is a narrower job, and an easier one to bring to market.

The C100’s program is still going too. 48Hrs in the Valley now runs each year as part of the C100 Fellows program, with a kickoff in Toronto before the cohort heads to Silicon Valley for mentoring from the organization’s network of Canadian tech leaders.