moxHealth
Colorimetric patch technology for detecting ovulation in females with fertility problems.
Overview
Collorometric Patch for Transdermal Ovulation Detection
"moxHealth" is a colorimetric patch technology for detecting ovulation in females with fertility problems. The patch is applied to the abdomen after ones period and work for a couple of days. At high fertility windows knows as peak days hormone levels are the highest, patch detects this high concentration of hormones and changes colour, indicating ovulation.
Context
Understanding Problem
In my senior year at the University of Waterloo, I was interested in non-invasive monitoring of human hormones and reading research papers on applications of nanotechnology for biomarkers detection at low concentrations. Vision was to create a device that would help to get continuous feedback on human health using non-invasive sensors. I have partnered with my friends majoring in biomedical studies to search for potential problems and applications in medicine that would help to enter the endocrine testing market. After researching and proposing solutions for multiple industry problems, we decided to focus on female fertility problems as we found this industry best fit for early tech and market de-risking. Together we have conducted surveys and pitched moxHealth at university based Start-Up Concept5K pitch competition and won $5000 non-dilutive funding.
- • Problem Statement
- - About 12 million women in North America have difficulties getting pregnant
- - These fertility problems are now more pronounced since the average age of new moms has been increasing where now, 20% of American women have their first child at 35 or older
- - As women age, there are more complications with getting pregnant so many of them turn to the use of ovulation detection to improve their chances of conception.
- • User Research Findings
- - After conducting a survey on more than 270 women, we have identified that main pain-point for ovulation testing using current technologies is user experience.
- - Some women use apps to teach their cycles but most use ovulation sticks to have a definitive measure of fertility.
- - Ovulation sticks require daily urine testing at the same time for many days and our survey found that these kits are either hard to use, expensive, sometimes inaccurate, or run out early - by which point women miss their ovulation window altogether.
design
Non Invasive Patch for Body
Our solution is patch technology that can be sticked to pubic area and worn for couple of days and on high fertility window patch would detect ovulation and change colour. This would simplify number of steps users have to take to get their results, help to continuously monitor hormones changes and seamless convince based around one's lifestyle. As Latin stands for language of science and medicine, I have named patch "mox" which means "here, now" in Latin. I designed patch based on name and logo. In logo design, O resembles female ovary/egg and X represent chromosomes as well as second half of X letter is designed to be non-sticky to help users to remove patch easily.
Patch Design
Design Board
Pitch
Start-Up Concept5K Competition
Watch our pitch presentation for the Start-Up Concept5K competition where we won $5000 in non-dilutive funding.