KOR Test (rapid olfactory kit)

  • Años: 2020 – 2021

Low-cost smell test designed to screen for one of the earliest and most prevalent symptoms of COVID-19: the sudden loss of smell.

Proyecto

KOR is a quick, non-invasive, and low-cost test —around US$0.50 per test— that, together with a web platform, provides an estimated probability of COVID-19 infection based on an assessment of smell capacity. The test consists of the sequential identification of six scents and takes less than three minutes; at the end, it generates a ranking that determines whether the person has smell impairment, in which case confirmation through a PCR test is recommended.

The web platform, developed by the Innovation and Technology Transfer area of the Millennium Institute for Foundational Research on Data (IMFD), records, securely stores, and manages results in real time, and includes statistical dashboards and alerts to track each organization.

The system uses a Bayesian Network model that can detect COVID-19 cases that appear asymptomatic.

The test was awarded a prize at the UC 2021 Technology Transfer and Intellectual Property Day.

Equipo de desarrollo

  • Susana Eyheramendy, faculty member at the Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias of Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez and researcher at the Millennium Institute for Foundational Research on Data (IMFD).

  • Pedro A. Saa, faculty member at the Departamento de Ingeniería Química y Bioprocesos of the Escuela de Ingeniería UC and at the Instituto de Ingeniería Matemática y Computacional UC.

  • Eduardo Undurraga, faculty member at the Escuela de Gobierno UC, researcher at the Millennium Nucleus for the Collaborative Research on Antimicrobial Resistance (Microb-R), at the Centro de Investigación para la Gestión Integrada del Riesgo de Desastres (CIGIDEN), and at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR).

  • Carlos Valencia, Centro de Aromas y Sabores, DICTUC S.A.

  • Carolina López, Centro de Aromas y Sabores, DICTUC S.A.

  • Luis Méndez, Hospital Padre Hurtado and the Department of Gastroenterology of Clínica Alemana de Santiago.

  • Javier Pizarro-Berdichevsky, Hospital Sótero del Río and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of the Facultad de Medicina UC.

  • Andrés Finkelstein-Kulka, Department of Otorhinolaryngology of Clínica Alemana de Santiago and the Facultad de Medicina, Universidad del Desarrollo.

  • Sandra Solari, Clinical Laboratory of the Facultad de Medicina UC.

  • Nicolás Salas, Millennium Institute for Foundational Research on Data.

  • Pedro Bahamonde, Millennium Institute for Foundational Research on Data.

  • Martín Ugarte, Millennium Institute for Foundational Research on Data.

  • Pablo Barceló, faculty member at the Instituto de Ingeniería Matemática y Computacional UC, and researcher at the Millennium Institute for Foundational Research on Data and at the Centro Nacional de Inteligencia Artificial (CENIA).

  • Marcelo Arenas, faculty member at the Instituto de Ingeniería Matemática y Computacional UC and the Departamento Ciencias de la Computación UC, and researcher at the Millennium Institute for Foundational Research on Data.

  • Eduardo Agosín, faculty member at the Departamento de Ingeniería Química y Bioprocesos UC, and at the Centro de Aromas y Sabores, DICTUC S.A.

Documentos