Basil Leaf Technologies highlights its tricorder platform from right: Phil Charron, Basil Harris, Julia Harris, Gus Harris, and Edward Hepler.
After five years, the $10 million Qualcomm Tricorder competition finally has a winner. In a talk at Think Company in Philadelphia, the four siblings, friend and software developers that made up Team Final Frontier and later formed Philadelphia-based Basil Leaf Technologies credited an alternative approach with helping the group and its “DxtER” platform best several teams of technology developers.
“Other teams thought about gadgets and tests first. We built questions with answers that would prompt certain questions,” said Basil Harris, an emergency room physician at Lankenau Hospital who also possess a PhD in civil engineering. He and brother Gus, another physician, with sister Julia, Phil Charron, and Edward Hepler collectively seemed to learn a lot from their experience. They also gained some insight on the consumer experience.
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A couple of team members including Constantine Harris and Andrew Singer were not present at the event.
“Most physicians, by the time they order a test, are fairly certain they know what disease a patient may have,” Basil Harris observed. He noted that other teams emphasized testing before questions. Some required multiple tests be done. But what good is having four or five blood tests and a urine sample if the conclusion is you have high blood pressure? That diagnosis could have been determined without those invasive tests. Given that the user assessment was a critical part of the scoring, they probably wouldn’t have been thrilled with the battery of tests.
The way questions were phrased also had an impact. One question initially asked what was the user’s complaint. But the team received feedback that most people don’t think they are complaining when they have an illness or are experiencing symptoms. So the question was changed to, what is bothering you lately?
On the flip side, Basil said with two physicians in the group they were keen to validate their approach in the medical community. Although there is a certain amount of skepticism about the company’s device, it is tempered by the clear desire to strive for accuracy and improve it. Although George Harris speculated that the device could lead to fewer late night hospital visits and improve patient communication with physicians, they don’t view their approach as a way to replace physicians.
The company is currently recruiting for a 500-person clinical study of its blood monitoring device. The goal is to provide a non-invasive way to continuously track blood glucose, white blood cell count, and hemoglobin pulse oxymetry.
It’s interesting to consider Basil Leaf Technologies’ win considering the teams they were up against were so much larger. But they enjoyed a strong rapport. Edward Hepler noted that each team member knew their role and their area of expertise and they respected each other to do their respective jobs.
But the win also speaks to the importance of intuitive design and making patients feel less like pin cushions and more like participants in their own care.
