SMART (Self Medical Analysis Recording and Testing) McCoy: “Peace of Mind in the Palm of Your Hand”

“Imagine a portable, wireless device in the palm of your hand that monitors and diagnoses your health conditions. That’s the technology envisioned by this competition, and it will allow unprecedented access to personal health metrics. The end result: Radical innovation in healthcare that will give individuals far greater choices in when, where, and how they receive care.” – Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE website.

Gradual evolution of the healthcare system is unlikely to lead to lasting solutions. Instead, a paradigm shift is necessary. Digital technology is changing every aspect of our lives, and presents opportunities to create tools to advance healthcare. While the portable medical device market is exploding, a lack of strategic long-term approaches to development of these devices has left us with chaotic standards and capabilities that are not solving the problem. This is particularly true for the consumer who has little understanding of how to interpret or integrate data from many discrete devices in order to obtain meaningful information. Multiplying the number of gadgets, even the most highly sensitive and accurate ones, is not the solution. What is necessary is a concerted effort to integrate the many devices into a convenient instrument package; to provide assurance of uniform diagnostic standards; and to increase ease of use and understanding the output of the instrument. A significant focus must be on the end-user experience in order to engender an individual’s desire to monitor health conditions. The design of the device must enable and deliver a compelling, delightful experience. To modify the voice that Ray Kinsella heard in Field of Dreams, “if you build it right, they will come.”

Medical testing generally evokes fear and discomfort, presenting significant barriers to be overcome before an instrument is adopted for regular at-home use. A key element to our solution lies in the user experience and interface engaging people to medically test themselves. This unique capability is brought to bear on the challenge of making the SMART McCoy Tricorder technical capabilities friendly, engaging and even fun using virtual human and avatar interface. Through collaboration our team has close ties with the entertainment industry, especially in games and narrative, and these “soft skills” will be applied to bringing digital health to analog humans.

SMART McCoy Tricorder: “Peace of Mind in the Palm of Your Hand”