Innovation award for wireless fertility monitor and non-contact vital signs monitor

21 Jan 2011

Two UK emerging medical technology businesses won awards last month at the Discovering Start-Ups 2010. Cambridge Temperature Concepts won for its female fertility monitor, and PneumaCare for a contactless vital signs monitor.

The winners, who included three other wireless technology companies, were selected from 25 budding entrepreneurs who pitched their innovative wireless technologies and business plans to the likes of Google, Microsoft and Orange, along with some of the world’s leading angel and VC investors.

 The competition is run by Cambridge Wireless and supported by the East of England Development Agency (EEDA).

The winners all impressed a prestigious judging panel including Tim Regan from Microsoft; Frederic Rombaut, Head of Qualcomm Ventures Europe; David Leftley from Vodafone Group R&D; Jean-Louis Fuccellaro, Managing Director, Orange Labs UK and Clive Grinyer, Director Customer Experience, CISCO.

From the investor community, the judges included Jamie Urquhart of Pond Venture Partners and co-founder of ARM; Glenn Collinson, co-founder of CSR, Bruno Dizengremel of Innovacom, the VC arm of Orange; and Chris Winters, New Venture Partners.

“The quality of entrants was very high and choosing five winners from the 25 pitches proved very difficult,” said Leo Poll, business development manager at Philips Research and one of the competition adjudicators. “It is good to see that innovation is still thriving in the East of England and we are confident that the Discovering Start-Up winners and many of the other finalists will go on to be key players in the rapidly growing wireless industry.”

Each of the winners walked away with a coveted Discovering Start-Ups Award along with £2,000 in prize money, as well as having the unparalleled opportunity to present to such an influential panel of industry experts and investors.

“The line up of judges reads like a Who’s Who in the wireless angle, VC and corporate investment community, bringing together years of industry experience and success in spotting and backing winning technologies and businesses,” said Soraya Jones, CEO of Cambridge Wireless. “The support from the start-ups and judges reflects the strong track record of pioneering UK wireless innovation and the chance for all the finalists to pitch to such a distinguished and powerful audience was simply unique.”

“Discovering Start-Ups has been a great success and were delighted to support the initiative to encourage, inspire and recognise the next generation of technology entrepreneurs who will play a vital role in helping to drive the economy out of recession,” said Dr Paul May, executive director of EEDA. “We are already looking ahead to Discovering Start-ups 2011.”

The winners

Cambridge Temperature Concepts

DuoFertility is a non-invasive, easy-to-use female fertility monitor. It is the most natural, convenient, and precise way of maximising the chances of getting pregnant. In a study of 98 patients who qualified for IVF treatment for unexplained infertility, DuoFertility was shown to be equally effective as IVF in achieving pregnancy. DuoFertility consists of a wireless patch that measures your physiology 20,000 times a day, a handheld reader that downloads, calculates and presents results, and a PC software + web service application to return all this data to base for expert analysis, yielding Harley Street quality of care in your home.

Pneumacare

Pneumacare provides clinicians with non-contact, intelligent monitoring of vital signs for clinical management, intensive care and home care applications. PneumaCare's PneumaScan technology observes chest wall movements and calculates volume changes over time based on Structured Light Plethysmography (SLP) technology. SLP works by projecting a grid pattern onto a patient’s chest area, while in standing, seated or supine position.

Two cameras record the changes in the projected pattern on the patient’s chest from different perspectives. The result is a moving 3D model of the chest. The 3D model’s movements are quantified, yielding airflows and respiration rates that are presented in formats familiar to the clinician and which conform to regulatory standards.