Scanadu gets funding and preps for device trials
Walter De Brouwer, founder and CEO of Scanadu, with the Scanadu Scout medical device.(Photo: Gabriela Hasbun)
Medical device maker Scanadu has some gotten a healthy boost in partners and funding.
The company has announced an influx of $10.5 million in Series A funding from investors including Relay Ventures[1], Vegas TechFund[2] and Ame Cloud Ventures, founded by Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang. This follows Scanadu's Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign[3] that raised nearly $1.7 million.
Scanadu[4] will use the funds to increase its employees to 30 -- it's now at 19, says founder and CEO Walter De Brouwer -- as well as build prototypes of the Scanadu Scout, the company's Bluetooth-enabled medical scanning device. Those will be used in upcoming clinical trials at the Scripps Translational Science Institute[5].
CHANGE AGENTS: Walter De Brouwer's magical tricorder[6]
The Scout scans vital signs including temperature, respiratory rate, heart rate, blood pressure and sends readings to a smart phone. However, the first trial will initially focus on patients achieving optimal blood pressure levels.
The Scanadu Scout is a vital sign monitor that analyzes, tracks and trends your vitals - temperature, respiratory rate, oximetry, ECG, systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure - in 10 seconds.(Photo: Scanadu)
Testing is needed to eventually get approval from the Food and Drug Administration for the device's approval. Original Indiegogo supporters are among those who can participate in the trial.
The goal, De Brouwer says, is for patients and medical care providers to be able to share data electronically, without constant face-to-face appointments. "They can both use the same data," he says. "This is very very important. Like a thermometer, the doctor asks what your temperature was, he doesn't say, 'Let's use my thermometer'."
The company, which has also set up a medical advisory board, is among the contestants in Qualcomm's Tricorder X Prize competition[7]. After a qualifying round scheduled for April 2014, finalists will be named in July 2014.
References
- ^ http://relayventures.com/ (relayventures.com)
- ^ http://vegastechfund.com/ (vegastechfund.com)
- ^ http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2013/05/22/scanadu-medical-tricorder/2350259/ (rssfeeds.usatoday.com)
- ^ http://www.scanadu.com/ (www.scanadu.com)
- ^ http://www.stsiweb.org/ (www.stsiweb.org)
- ^ http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2013/05/20/walter-de-brouwer-scanadu-usa-today-innovators/1957351/ (www.usatoday.com)
- ^ http://www.qualcommtricorderxprize.org/ (www.qualcommtricorderxprize.org)