Why the ‘Electronic Nose’ Is Set to Revolutionize Health Care
Dec 06, 2013
Samuel M. Khamis, the CEO of a new tech start-up, is building a chip that can be embedded in your smartphone and will be able to smell your breath. With just a whiff, the “electric nose” sensor, which Khamis is developing at Adamant Technologies, can provide information about a person’s current metabolic state and detail how many calories he or she is burning in real time. For those looking to lose weight, this would be potentially invaluable. The invention is also being refined to warn users well in advance if they’re about to have an asthma attack. Khamis expects his new sensor technology will eventually be used for many other real-time health care applications, with developers testing all different kinds of possibilities around breath analysis. Adamant has been growing quickly, securing venture capital financing along the way, and Khamis is hopeful his product will be available to the masses within the next few years. The ultimate goal is to help people manage their health more effectively and give doctors and health care professionals in-depth information about their patients. Knowledge@Wharton sat down with Khamis to discuss the technology and its growth prospects. The interview was conducted jointly with Hoag Levins, editor of LDI Health Economist Magazine.
An edited version of the transcript appears below.
Hoag Levins: Sam, how did you get interested in this subject in the first place?
Samuel M. Khamis: I’ve always been interested in the idea of using advanced technology to help the general population, and it became a personal mission of mine before I went to grad school. When I went to grad school at UPenn back in 2004, I started working on novel nanotechnology. Read more of this post
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