Final Frontier Medical Devices

Final Frontier Medical Devices is a Paoli, Pennsylvania-based medical technology company founded in 2012 that won the $10M Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE in 2017 with its DxtER diagnostic platform — a handheld AI-powered device that can assess 34 health conditions and measure 6 vital signs non-invasively without requiring medical personnel to operate it. The Tricorder XPRIZE was inspired by the Star Trek tricorder concept: a portable device capable of autonomous medical diagnosis that could provide healthcare in remote or resource-constrained environments.

DxtER integrates sensors for blood oxygenation, body temperature, electrocardiography, blood pressure, and respiratory function with an AI diagnostic engine trained on clinical data to identify conditions including diabetes, atrial fibrillation, stroke, pneumonia, anemia, and kidney disease. The space medicine application is direct: astronauts on long-duration deep space missions (Moon/Mars/Artemis) cannot be evacuated to Earth for medical care — the communication delay alone makes telemedicine impractical for emergencies.

Autonomous diagnostic capability aboard spacecraft is a critical unmet need as NASA prepares for 6-month transit missions to Mars where crew must manage their own healthcare. Final Frontier works with NASA and space medicine researchers on space-rating and validating the DxtER platform for in-space medical use.