Novarum DX, the company behind a technology which transforms smartphones into medical diagnostic test readers, has had the technology patented in the USA

Patent number 9,903,857 was officially granted for the United States of America, while recent proceedings with the European Patent Office should provide the company with the equivalent protection for the region in 2018.

This latest patent builds upon Novarum’s success in securing its technology in China, Japan and Russia. The company has further patents pending across a number of other territories.

Mobile Health Eco-System

Novarum’s now-patented image-capture technology enables a mobile phone’s camera to accurately interpret the results of a wide range of visually read tests.

Results of diagnostics tests can be accurately read and securely shared with healthcare professionals online, as part of a mobile eco-system. Patient data is recorded and stored in an end-user portal which enables doctors to monitor a patient’s condition remotely, while developing trend-analysis centred around their condition. The technology enables patients to manage the condition from their own home.

Novarum’s smartphone readers can be used in challenging environments, far from healthcare provision. For example, the technology can be used to diagnose and track the spread of infectious diseases, in remote regions of developing countries.

There are numerous applications for Novarum’s technology:

• life sciences (testing and monitoring infectious and chronic disease in humans and within veterinary)
• environmental (testing for legionnaires’ disease)
• industrial testing (microbial fuel contamination within the aviation industry)

Within the past year three years, Novarum has launched products to monitor Crohns’ and Colitis by patients at home, as well as a strong pipeline of products with applications including HIV, drug abuse testing, with test partners worldwide.

Company Acquisition

In October 2016, Novarum was acquired by, leading manufacturer of raw materials and assay development, BBI Solutions after they purchased the remaining shares from the initial joint venture.

Novarum Founder and BBI Group head of mobile, Dr Neil Polwart, said: “This consolidates our intellectual property position in key strategic markets and confirms our belief that we are leaders in bringing mobile technology to the diagnostics market. The allowance of these applications is key technology for enabling a mobile device to read diagnostic tests, without adding any additional hardware. Both patent offices have recognised the novelty and inventiveness of the solution Novarum developed back in 2011, which corrects for the inevitable misalignment when a user scans a test with a handheld device.

“As well as a huge bank of technical know-how related to solving the problems of reading diagnostic tests with the mobile phone in your pocket, rather than specialist equipment, we have built a sophisticated library of technology which helps us deploy more robust products into the field – faster than ever before.  Accuracy of measurement and ease-of-use are essentially impossible to combine without our technology, or adding cumbersome device-specific hardware accessories to your phone. ”

mHealth

BBI Group CEO, Mario Gualano said: “We were delighted to receive word about Novarum’s pending patent applications. An increasing number of in-vitro diagnostics companies are embracing the disruptive technology of mobile and embarking upon mHealth strategies. Novarum continues to remain at the forefront of technologies for next generation diagnostics and that is essential in support of our ambitious plans for growth.”