Upload
meenx
View
218
Download
0
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
8/13/2019 Silicon Valley - Cellscope
1/4
Sound innovation
Cellscope is working to create digital first-aid kits that run on your smartphone
Meenakshi Radhakrishnan-Swami
COPY B!"#S
"$ve %ecome pretty good at looking at my inner ear&' rik (ouglas grins) You could %e
forgiven for thinking this is a contortionist showing off his latest skills& even as you
wonder *ust +how, that would %e possi%le) hen& (ouglas deftly snaps on a small
conical piece of plastic to the %ack of his iPhone case and inserts it into his ear) On
the screen& facing us& pops up a circular image of a pale& stretched mem%rane . it$s
his tympanic mem%rane /ear drum& to the layman0) 1his is what a healthy ear drum
looks like . "$ve also %ecome an e2pert on healthy and unhealthy ears&' he says&
raising his voice slightly as the noise of construction of the rans%ay Center outsideCellscope$s office in San 3ranscisco$s SOM4 district threatens to drown out the
conversation)
#ot e2actly the area of e2pertise you$d e2pect from an electrical engineer-turned-
%ioengineering postdoctoral student-turned entrepreneur) But then& for the past year
and more& the 55-year-old (ouglas has %een working on the Cellscope Oto& an
iPhone attachment that transforms the smartphone into an otoscope& used %y
doctors to look inside ears) 6is three-year-old start-up& Cellscope& is preparing for
the commercial launch of the device ne2t year& even as doctors across the 7S have
%een clipping the Oto onto their phones for the past several months in an alphatesting programme) 4nd while it$s still very early days yet& (ouglas already has plans
to introduce an array of devices using the smartphone platform) 18e want to develop
a digital first-aid kit with specialised ear& skin and eye devices) 8hen someone$s
unwell at home& we want you to *ust reach for the kit& clip on the appropriate device
9to the phone: and collect images&' he says)
Cellscope didn$t start out with a mandate to peek into people$s ears) Rather& it is the
interesting outcome of an effort %y (aniel 3letcher& a professor of %ioengineering at
the 7niversity of California& Berkeley& to engage his undergrad optics class . in
;
8/13/2019 Silicon Valley - Cellscope
2/4
(ouglas and Sheng spun off Cellscope as a separate company& %ased on the
technology they had helped refine at the Berkeley la%)
Paging (r Mom
8hile the Cellscope team had taken on licence the technology from Berkeley& they
weren$t certain what would %e the most commercially via%le product) 3or the ne2t
several months& ideas were tossed around& including %lood analysis& for
chemotherapy and so on) 7ltimately& though& the founders @eroed in on the otoscope
as the most attractive first product for the new company& 1where a small start-up
could make a %ig impact')
4 smartphone-%ased otoscope is certainly less complicated than& say& a tu%erculosis
diagnosis system& which was one of the pro*ects initiated at the la%) But that wasn$tits only attraction) ar infections are the most common reason for visits to the
paediatrician in the 7S . research says over ?
8/13/2019 Silicon Valley - Cellscope
3/4
the first commercial production of the device is currently underway) But this is
targeted at the medical community a full-fledged commercial launch won$t happen
%efore end-;
8/13/2019 Silicon Valley - Cellscope
4/4
here$s also the fact that Cellscope is currently working only on 4pple iPhones . a
premium& e2pensive gadget %y itself) Operating systems such as 4ndroid& in
contrast& offer far greater choice across price points and device sophistication)
(ouglas concedes the point) 18e picked one handset and have optimised our device
for that) But yes& to capture a wider market& it would %e interesting to work on otherphones as well)
4nd capturing a wider market is certainly part of Cellscope$s gameplan) he original&
high magnification technology created at Berkeley la%s . and its focus on emerging
economies -- hasn$t %een forgotten) 18e want to market 9our devices: around the
world as well as launch other applications in the ne2t five years&' says (ouglas) 1his
is not *ust a way for rich people to get care faster) 8e want to create ways to deliver
healthcare %etter& not *ust a little faster or a little cheaper) 8e can do that %y taking a
common device& %uilding in new capa%ilities and offering it as an e2tension to
healthcare)'