HemoGo – blood testing at your fingertips
 HemoGo app and device prototypesWhen his grandfather was diagnosed with cancer, Shevy Karbasi was regularly driving him to doctor appointments. Throughout chemotherapy and remission, getting a blood count check was inconvenient and time consuming.
During an internship at Harvard Medical School, Shevy saw a lot of other families having the same difficulty. He knew there had to be a better way. Blood count tests could be faster, less expensive, and more convenient for everyone involved.
Shevy KarbasiShevy thought everything could be done more efficiently using a smartphone application.  He started working on HemoGO, a mobile app, that worked in combination with a small blood test strip reader. His goal is that any person with the HemoGo reader and the app will be able to conduct a complete blood count test at home or anywhere, and electronically send that blood sample to an approved health care professional, all in less than a minute.
“Users prick their finger. Place a drop of blood onto our test strips. Insert their smartphone and test trip into the HemoGo case, and within seconds they’ll have a complete blood count delivered to their physician.”
HemoGo Mobile App Prototype
With HemoGo, the patient no longer needs to make an appointment with the doctor or travel to the lab for routine blood tests.Â
A biology student at Penn State University, Shevy approached the Happy Valley Launch Box for help in making his app idea into a reality.
He’s created his own health technology startup, Moichor, and is hopeful that Hemogo will soon allow chemotherapy patients like his grandfather to monitor white blood counts from home. He also sees the app saving money on costly lab subscription fees for small clinics and streamlining data collection for pharmaceutical companies. Â
By working with Penn State’s Happy Valley Launch Box Accelerator program, Shevy and his startup team have access to mentor meetup sessions where people from different colleges can share ideas on everything from software to graphic design. Shevy credits the Launch Box mentors with helping to get HemoGo into the FDA Approval process.
“They actually assembled our FDA Advisory Board. Whenever I have a question, I can go ask Dr. Ericksen and she’ll provide me with all the resources I need. If she doesn’t have the answer, which is a very rare case, she’ll direct me to someone who does. It’s amazing.”
The Moichor team is confident that with the advice and resources of the Happy Valley Launch Box, they will be able to progress HemoGO on to the next step, and the next one after that. Shevy thinks blood tests are just the beginning.
“I really see HemoGo developing into a medical device company, where we can offer like 20 tests from your phone. We can integrate with clinics and we’re going to be producing so much information. This information is so powerful! It can really impact a lot of people’s lives!”
Transcript:
Transcript:
Shevy Karbasi’s grandfather’s health demanded frequent doctor visits for blood tests. His grandfather needed rides. Juggling school work and doctor appointments was difficult.
Sherveen Karbasi: It was very inconvenient because he didn’t have energy. I had to schedule time to bring him into the clinic.
That’s when Shevy had an idea for a new kind of smartphone app. He calls it HemoGo (He MOE GO)!
Sherveen Karbasi:Â Â Users prick their finger. You place a drop of blood onto our test strips, insert their smartphone and test trip into the case and within 30 seconds will have a complete blood count delivered to them and their physician.
The app is designed to establish a baseline blood count. Monthly tests, done at home, look for changes in the blood. If one is detected, the app alerts your physician, so a follow-up test can be scheduled.
Shevy’s credits Penn State University’s Happy Valley LaunchBox for providing him with mentors who are helping create clinical trials, secure FDA approvals, and keep his project on track.
Sherveen Karbasi: For people to give you the path is so helpful and I’m sure I wouldn’t have made it this far if it wasn’t for Dr. Erickson or Happy Valley LaunchBox.
Running a startup is a huge commitment, but Shevy is convinced his HemoGo app has the potential to save money, save time, and save lives.
Find more information about HemoGO at www.moichor.com
Happy Valley LaunchBox programs are open to everyone (community members, Penn State students, faculty, and staff). Founded in February of 2016, LaunchBox is a signature program of Invent Penn State, a Commonwealth-wide initiative to spur economic development, job creation, and student career success. Happy Valley LaunchBox is one of 17 innovation hubs across the Commonwealth. Their mission is to be the “hub” that connects local entrepreneurs to the support, resources, and facilities they need to build a sustainable and scalable business with a viable plan for growth.
By centralizing no-cost services, they help entrepreneurs to avoid the common mistakes startups often face and enable them to focus their time on de-risking and growing their businesses.
Learn more about Penn State University’s Happy Valley LaunchBox at http://launchbox.psu.edu/
Support for Innovation U comes from PNC.
Innovation U is a project from WITF, where we share stories of entrepreneurs and Pennsylvania universities who are working together to make new ideas come to life. Learn more at witf.org/innovation
A collection of interviews, photos, and music videos, featuring local musicians who have stopped by the WITF performance studio to share a little discussion and sound. Produced by WITF’s Joe Ulrich.
