Two Israeli startups with products that may meet the need for diagnosing pneumonia won seed grants from Grand Challenges Israel.
The winning startups with a focus on pneumonia diagnosis are RespiDX and NanoVation-GS. Both address the reality that the usual methods of diagnosing pneumonia in the developed world don’t work well in developing countries.
RespiDX has designed the Respimometer, which looks like a cross between a pacifier and a digital oral thermometer. The mouth stop just under the child’s nose would be embedded with sensors to measure breathing.
NanoVation-GS is developing a stick-on patch coated with a thin film of nanomaterial containing a sensor to measure respiration. “You just put it on the child’s face and it ‘feels’ when it’s in contact with the skin and starts to measure respiration rate autonomously,” said cofounder Sagi Gliksman.
