Mar 10 2015
Vantage mHealthcare Inc., ("Vantage") or (the "Company") today announced that Vantage’s manufacturer expects to deliver 100 Health Sensors over the next month to hospitals and research facilities in the United States and New Zealand, advancing to the next phase of its research and development process, in order to prepare for human clinical trials.
Implementing this deployment is of great significance to Vantage. Over the past six months, the Company has invested a great deal of time, effort, and resources in improving the ergonomic design of the hand-held device; adding blue-tooth communication capabilities to the unit, increasing the sensitivity of the nanotube-based chemical sensors, refining the software algorithms used to interpret the raw sensor data, and automating the production of the critical components.
Several variations of ergonomic fittings used to capture breath exhaled by patients were designed, manufactured, tested, and optimized to produce a device appropriate for initial testing. Blue-tooth communication capabilities allow the hand-held unit to communicate in real-time to smart-phones, tablets, and laptops. Several new nanomaterials used to sense airborne volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were created, tested, and enhanced to improve the sensitivity of the device in detecting biomarkers containing a critical VOC exhaled in low levels by many patients needing an easy-to-use, non-invasive tool for an early screening of their medical condition. An early detection of disease, while treatments can still be initiated before the disease becomes terminal, will help them fight their condition. The proprietary software algorithm used to interpret the raw sensor data in the lab setting is now being translated into apps that will soon allow real-time data interpretation using the portable displays on smart-phones, tablets and laptops. Lastly, automating the production allows Vantage to quickly scale up production for much larger volumes needed to meet future testing and production goals.
These developments are bringing the disruptive technology closer to market, where they will be used to screen for specific diseases by detecting VOCs known by medical experts to be exhaled by patients with medical conditions such as cancer. Vantage has worked diligently with its many science partners to overcome some engineering challenges and looks forward to testing in more hospitals and research facilities around the world.