Toby Norman wins two innovation prizes for a device for checking medical records remotely.
A mobile phone-based biometrics project which allows healthcare workers to collect and check patient information in the developing world has won two business innovation competitions.
The Sim-Prints technology was designed by a team of students, including Gates scholar Toby Norman, at the Global Hack Day Challenge held at the University of Cambridge’s Department of Engineering in March. It involves a fingerprint ID system tied in with mobile technology which can be used by doctors on the move to replace paper-based medical records.
The challenge brought together seven teams who had to brainstorm ideas for innovation in global health care over the course of a week. They had to come up with a solution to a current healthcare challenge set by seven local organisations, including Addenbrooke’s Abroad, and pitch it to four judges and an audience of around 100 people.
Having won that competition, Toby and his two colleagues, Shruti Badwar and Mariya Chhatriwala, entered the technology in the Cambridge Idea Transform competition in April.
Aimed at supporting and accelerating projects that benefit and improve society, over 100 people attended the competition, held at the Judge Business School in Cambridge between 20-22 April 2012. Judges included Stephen O’Brien, BlackBerry’s Director of Digital and Social Marketing for Europe, Middle East and Africa. There were a number of highly regarded social entrepreneurs and business angels speaking at the event, including Jack Lang of the Raspberry Pi Foundation.
Toby [2011] is doing a PhD in Management Studies, looking at the application of management science to health problems.
He said: “We were thrilled to win these two competitions back-to-back. I really think this technology has some promise. We’re currently working closely with the mHealth specialists MedicMobile to develop our prototype and figure out how to operationalise the platform through their network of projects in 15 countries. If we can get this to the field, that would be the real success.”
