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.