We decided to focus our work on developing low-cost medical devices for low-income countries.

And one of the biggest challenges of using medical devices, particularly in areas that are under-resourced, is the availability of a low-cost technology. So this opportunity that we saw was because Dr. Dumont had developed a technology that worked on the power of a smart phone. He’s developed a device that is sub-$20, that would normally be $100 to $200.

A very basic Kenek O2 consists of a smart phone, oximetry probe, which is hooked to the phone through the audio jack. Once the signals are being sent to the phone, then there’s software and signal processing that is interpreting those signals in terms of oxygen saturation and heart rate. We also are taking this further to look at other parameters — physiological parameters — such as blood pressure, temperature.

Essentially what we’re doing is making the smart phone into the medical device. And that was very unique.

There is a tremendous difference between academic research and the development of a product, and especially a product in this sphere of mobile health, which is still a fairly new field.

To work with a university like the University of British Columbia and Dr. Dumont, the ability to work with a mindset that can really innovate, is really exciting to us, and we continue to want to do that.