Portuguese startup creates blood test device

A Portuguese startup, CRIAM, has developed a solution that allows blood tests to be done in just three minutes.

The device which won the Born from Knowledge Award, attributed by the National Innovation Agency (ANI), is portable, 80% cheaper than conventional equipment, and can even be used in emergency situations.
The startup from Braga stresses that the solution “reduces the chance of human error, allows compatibilities in emergency situations to be tested, and reduces dependence on O negative blood reserves, the rarest blood type.
CRIAM says that despite blood being the most common and reliable means of diagnosis, conventional blood tests take time and require centralised laboratories, expensive and bulky equipment, and manual and inefficient processes”, such as labels, transport and storage.
The startup worked for six years on this problem, the solution for which it now presents as a device that the company says: “can be used anywhere and in various situations, such as in a moving ambulance, or in places difficult to access, or without internet or power”.
“CRIAM is an absolutely innovative solution and has no competition in the market. And because it is portable it can be used in emergency situations and get a result that is 99.77% accurate in just three minutes.
“Given current developments in medicine and the increasing need to accelerate health procedures even more, using less resources, I foresee that there will be a lot of demand in the market, which is our main goal”, says the director of ANI, João Mendes Borga.
He also stresses the fact that CRIAM is the result of a spin-off from the University of Minho: “Is another example of the transfer of knowledge to the economy that is taking place, and will contribute to Portugal having an increasingly more competitive and differentiated offer in global markets”.
Headquartered in Braga, CRIAM estimates it has a potential market of €4Bn “distributed around 170,000 hospitals and 100,000 ambulances”. Among the main potential clients, the startup highlights health, the military, government and NGOs
The Braga startup is now looking at the European and US markets for blood typing and Covid-19 blood tests. In the emerging markets of Africa and South Asia, the device can bused to detect tuberculosis.