Excalibur Healthcare Services (“Excalibur”) announces today it has created an innovative ‘freedom passport’ which can pave the way for people to mix safely in public and travel securely in large numbers without spreading Covid infection.
The ‘passport’ has been developed through a pioneering partnership between Excalibur, led by Professor Sir Chris Evans, OBE, and his lateral flow diagnostics team in Cambridge, and Sensyne Health plc, the Oxford-based clinical AI company, led by Lord Drayson.
Using Sensyne’s pioneering algorithm technology in conjunction with Excalibur’s advanced COVID-19 testing systems, the team has now created an easy-to-use freedom passport which differs from other available products in that it is the only technology-based solution that fully executes the testing process, rather than simply reads results.
The ‘passport’ is created by integrating a person’s COVID-19 results from Excalibur’s lateral flow, PCR and antibody tests with Sensyne’s MagnifEye system – a proprietary software application that uses a cloud-based deep learning algorithm to automate the reading and analysis of diagnostic tests. In addition, a person’s vaccine certificate can be uploaded, complementing the full range of test results.
The comprehensive range of Excalibur COVID-19 tests are MHRA registered or processed in Excalibur’s UKAS accredited labs, and the certification technology is available as both a smartphone app and a web application.
The Excalibur ‘X-Test’ App quickly trains users to administer a lateral flow test, then it simultaneously uploads and reads the test result and formulates a shareable digital certificate that validates the date of training of the user, the time of the test result itself and the resulting COVID-19 health status of the person.
Professor Sir Chris Evans, chairman and CEO of Excalibur Healthcare Services, said: “We are delighted that a combination of all-British science and technology has achieved this exciting breakthrough and it can play an important part in helping people and the economy emerge from lockdown safely without further spread of infection.
“Following our exclusive agreement with Sensyne to licence and develop their technology, we have continued to build the combination with our own testing systems, which are regarded as world class and have been developed at our laboratories in Cambridge. The accuracy of our tests has been assessed by numerous independent scientific institutions around the world and found to outperform all other similar tests. Our rapid antigen test was the first to receive MRHA registration for asymptomatic screening in the general population. When we combine this with Sensyne’s unique MagnifEye algorithm technology we have a real game-changer as we can read and record lateral flow results to a higher sensitivity, more accurately and more consistently than the average human eye.
“This system will be available to the public in a few weeks’ time and, with the backing of government, would enable people to safely visit pubs, restaurants, theatres and sports venues with minimal distancing and to travel to international destinations with confidence. They will be able to show those charged with checking admission the full range of their test results – lateral flow, PCR, antibody – plus vaccine certificate if so required, all in a matter of seconds.
“The various tests will be able to be done at home and those test results which require to be sent for laboratory analysis will be automatically uploaded to the app within 20 hours. All of the results are then configured into a complete freedom passport without requiring any involvement from the smartphone user. This is a hugely encouraging development as we work towards opening up our economy and getting people back to normality in the months ahead.”
