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New $10 million X Prize launched for tricorder-style medical device

Nature Medicine volume 17, page 754 (2011)Cite this article

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In the fictional universe of the Star Trek TV series, Starfleet doctors routinely diagnosed their patients on the spot using boxy, gray, handheld devices called tricorders. But gadgets like these could be available much sooner than the twenty-third century thanks to a newly announced 'X Prize' for mobile diagnostics, which boasts a $10 million award.

Run by the telecom giant Qualcomm and the X Prize Foundation—a California nonprofit behind several big-money competitions in genomics, space exploration and clean-energy technologies—the aptly named 'Tricorder Prize' aims to reward the inventor of a single portable device that, without human input, can diagnose an array of diseases with the same level of accuracy as a panel of physicians. Although the specific medical conditions haven't yet been selected, they will be challenging, organizers say, ranging from metabolic syndromes to infectious diseases to neurological conditions.

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  1. Hannah Waters
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Waters, H. New $10 million X Prize launched for tricorder-style medical device. Nat Med 17, 754 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm0711-754a

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