????如果一切都在新創(chuàng)企業(yè)Scanadu掌握，未來不會出現(xiàn)機器人醫(yī)生。雖然醫(yī)療設(shè)備變得越來越高科技，但位于加州山景城的Scanadu還是希望未來的醫(yī)療活動仍然由人類來掌控。

????這家公司希望自己能脫穎而出，率先開發(fā)出能掃描病人身體并得到醫(yī)學(xué)診斷數(shù)據(jù)的設(shè)備。該設(shè)備可謂醫(yī)療設(shè)計領(lǐng)域的“三錄儀”，是健康工程領(lǐng)域夢寐以求的終極目標(biāo)之一。【《星際迷航》（Star Trek）的粉絲們肯定知道這個名字，它是這部科幻片中的一款設(shè)備，具備傳感掃描、記錄和分析數(shù)據(jù)等功能。】多年來，工程師們一直對這樣的設(shè)備津津樂道，不過自去年五月以來，各廠商間的競爭陡然加劇。原因是，位于南加州的公益基金X Prize和高通（Qualcomm）合作宣布了一項競賽，將給予率先研發(fā)出該設(shè)備的團隊1,000萬美元獎勵。

????無處不在的智能手機，飛速發(fā)展的人工智能和云計算，這一切都讓三錄儀變得更加真實。X Prize首席執(zhí)行官皮特?戴曼迪斯稱：“當(dāng)我們意識到一項技術(shù)已經(jīng)到了臨界點，我們就會啟動X-Prizes基金”（該機構(gòu)過去舉辦的競賽曾誕生過第一架私人制造的宇宙飛船。）三錄儀競賽于上周在拉斯維加斯國際電子消費展（CES）上正式啟動。

????消費性健康產(chǎn)品的市場正日益成熟。去年第三季度，消費電子公司Jawbone發(fā)布了UP——一款能監(jiān)控用戶日常活動的個人健康手環(huán)。不過這塊新開墾的市場顯然布滿了荊棘。Jawbone最近就宣布了一項“無條件退款”活動，以平息消費者的不滿。消費性健康產(chǎn)品市場非常前衛(wèi)，目前還很難確定該前瞻性市場的價值，但調(diào)研機構(gòu)Frost & Sullivan表示，醫(yī)療影像市場價值近60億美元。

????Scanadu（名字來自其首席執(zhí)行官最喜愛的詩）對此胸有成竹，現(xiàn)在，它也加入了這場競爭激烈的競賽。其第一代產(chǎn)品計劃于2013年面世，具備一些基本功能。它內(nèi)置溫度計，能夠根據(jù)醫(yī)學(xué)網(wǎng)站的信息給出建議，還擁有GPS功能，能將用戶導(dǎo)航至最近的醫(yī)院。用戶還能在脖子上帶上感應(yīng)裝置，向這款產(chǎn)品發(fā)送生命體征信息。該產(chǎn)品還配有“高感光攝像頭”，意味著它能根據(jù)顏色生成可視化數(shù)據(jù)。德?布勞威爾表示，掃描肺癌病人可能會得到相同的顏色，而這款產(chǎn)品本質(zhì)上就是分析各種模式。

????不過Scanadu對其產(chǎn)品升級版本的構(gòu)想已相當(dāng)明確。德?布勞威爾在該產(chǎn)品身后看到了一整套全新的醫(yī)療基礎(chǔ)設(shè)備。他表示，自己的產(chǎn)品將來會和OnStar服務(wù)有些類似，后者是通用汽車（General Motors）開發(fā)的一套系統(tǒng)，能在發(fā)生事故時為司機提供緊急救助服務(wù)。Scanadu的未來產(chǎn)品能收集病人的身體數(shù)據(jù)，然后像OnStar一樣，將病人帶到相關(guān)代理人的面前，他們會聯(lián)系醫(yī)生進行進一步診斷。雖然仍少不了醫(yī)生，但德?布勞威爾認為這能減少實體診所的數(shù)量。

????There will be no robot doctors in the future -- at least not if Scanadu can help it. Even as hospital rooms become more high tech, the Mountain View, CA-based startup wants to make sure the future of medicine remains a human-centered experience.

????The company is vying to be the first to create a device that can scan a patient's body and return a medical diagnosis. The device, known in medical design lore as the "tricorder," is one of the elusive holy grails of health engineering. (Star Trek geeks will recognize the name from the fictional device from the show used for sensor scanning, recording data, and analyzing it.) Engineers have been talking about such a device for years, but the race intensified last May, when the X Prize Foundation, a Southern California-based nonprofit, and Qualcomm (QCOM) announced a contest promising $10 million to the first team to create one.

????The ubiquity of smartphones, and rapid developments in artificial intelligence and cloud computing have turned the tricorder into more than a pipedream. "We launch X-Prizes when we think the technology is at a tipping point," says X Prize CEO Peter Diamandis. (One of the organization's past contests generated the first privately-built spacecraft.) This contest officially launched last week at the consumer electronics trade show CES.

????The market for consumer health products is beginning to ripen. This fall the consumer electronics firm Jawbone released UP, a personal medical bracelet that monitors the user's daily routines. But the untested market is rocky. Jawbone has recently started offering "no questions asked" discounts to unsatisfied customers. While numbers for the forward thinking market are hard to pin, the medical imaging market is worth almost $6 billion, according to analysts Frost & Sullivan.

????Scanadu -- the name comes from the CEO's favorite poem -- has its work cut out for it. The company is tackling the contest in waves. The first iteration of the product is expected in 2013 and will be basic, providing a thermometer, suggestions from medical websites, and GPS functions that can lead you to a nearby hospital. A neck patch worn by users gives the device information on vital signs. The product works with "hyperspectral camera" technology, meaning it organizes visual data by color. For example, says de Brouwer, the scans of people with lung cancer might show up the same color, and the device essentially analyzes the patterns.

????But the company already has a concrete vision for advanced versions. De Brouwer sees an entirely new medical infrastructure around the device in the future. He says it will look a bit like the OnStar service, a system from General Motors (GM) that helps drivers during road disasters. The device will collect internal information from a user who is ill, and, like OnStar, will send the user to a tracking agent, who can then connect to a doctor for the diagnosis. While this preserves the role of the doctor, it will eliminate the need for doctor's offices, says de Brouwer.