It is really interesting to be thinking about this because a close friend of mine, John Spongberg, who runs a very successful personal training business in Marin, just last week said to me, “I guess I’m not really an entrepreneur because I have such a small business.” My reaction to that was to say that he was incorrect; that starting a business from scratch at considerable personal risk was the very definition of entrepreneurship (turns out Webster agrees). But would I call him an “innovator”? Probably not in the true sense of the word, as personal training, while great, is not a new idea that changes the world, although I sincerely hope it changes my post-holiday waistline.
And that contrast was what really kept coming back to me as I sat on my first day in Moscow in a room full of entrepreneurs and innovators, public and private sector representatives, Americans and Russians and watched and judged the finals of the Skolkovo Foundation’s Mobile Diagnostic Device Competition.
During the event, the 12 finalists who had made it this far were given a chance to present their answer to a challenge offered by Skolkovo to develop what is essentially their answer to the Qualcomm Tricorder X-Prize. For those of you unfamiliar, the X-Prize Foundation and Qualcomm have issued a challenge to anyone to build a mobile device capable of “making reliable health diagnoses available directly to “health consumers” in their homes.” Whoever can do this and meet the criteria will win $10 million, although it entirely possible that the winner will spend more than that to get to their offering.
Among the requirements of the Tricorder challenge are that the winning device will be a tool capable of capturing key health metrics and diagnosing a set of 15 diseases; will provide metrics like blood pressure, respiratory rate, and temperature; collect large volumes of data from ongoing measurement of health states through a combination of wireless sensors, imaging technologies, and portable, non-invasive laboratory replacements; will weigh less than 5 pounds and provide a great and safe user experience. It’s a tall order and I am guessing that if there is a Tricorder II challenge, new criteria will include the ability to diagnose disease while making a serviceable cappuccino and vacuuming the house, Roomba style.
The Skolkovo challenge was quite similar in its baseline criteria, although the winners could be still in the idea/pre-prototype state while the Tricorder winner will likely be much further along. Additional criteria stated for the Skolkovo competition were innovation, spirit, commercial viability, scientific value and team talent. The Skolkovo competition winner received $300K, not quite $10 million, but also the opportunity for further mentoring and assistance from Skolkovo’s innovation center.
Skolkovo leadership described that this challenge was also inspired by a number of digital health companies that are beginning to make a difference around the world, listing CellScope, AliveCor, STI2 (detects sexually-transmitted diseases—perhaps this will lead to safe sexting?), and my personal favorite, the Smart Toilet, which apparently takes urine readings, and weight and blood pressure measurements while one is reading the Sunday Times, if you know what I mean.
