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i-calQ Receives U.S. Patent for Smartphone-Based Method of Rapid Diagnostic Testing

i-calQ LLC today announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has granted the company a patent for a method to test “biological samples and body fluids” using an inexpensive smartphone attachment to “quantify, interpret, and record point of care diagnostic testing, creating, in essence, a low cost, portable, easy to use system that can replace the traditional medical laboratory.”

i-calQ’s patented, low-cost technology consists of disposable test strips, a universal reader attachment that is compatible with all makes and models of smartphones, and a decision support app that reads quantitative results from disposable test strips, provides rules-based expert algorithm support to interpret the results and recommends additional testing, treatment, and follow-up. The app automatically prints the results and transmits the results using either mobile data network or wireless internet connection to a cloud database or electronic medical record.

Joel Ehrenkranz M.D., i-calQ’s chief medical officer, begin innovating in the field of smartphone-based point of care diagnostics while working in an Ebola epidemic in Uganda in 2007. He recognized how the inability to promptly diagnose Ebola was costing lives and allowing the epidemic to spread.

Seeing the potential for convergence of mobile phone technology and modern medicine to help control the 2007 Ebola outbreak, Dr. Ehrenkranz foresaw how smartphones could become an essential platform for the next generation point-of-care diagnostics.

“In the most remote part of Uganda where very little worked, mobile phones did,” Dr. Ehrenkranz said. “It suddenly became obvious that the essential features of mobile phones could be used as portable clinical laboratories to test and interpret results and transmit this information to a centralized public health database. In 2007 it was an just an idea, but in 2014, it is reality.”

Promoting Cost-Effective Health Care

i-calQ’s technology can increase the penetration of public health surveillance, bringing specialist expertise to anywhere a smartphone goes, be it be a remote medical clinic or the privacy of a patient’s home.

i-calQ’s technology also has positive implications for the health and fitness of Americans who are concerned about changes in medical services and costs.

In addition to professional medical applications, personal biometric monitoring using i-calQ’s technology can be used to monitor nutrition, fitness, stress, and fertility. i-calQ’s technology can be used to identify whether a particular vitamin or supplement might be beneficial and the correct dose to take.

“If used wisely, these tests could reduce the number of doctor visits, lower insurance and medical costs, help individuals improve their health and fitness, and give consumers some control over their healthcare options,” explains Pamela Turbeville, CEO of i-calQ.

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