Healthcare Technology Featured Article

May 06, 2013

Kinsa's 'Smart Thermometer' Can Allow Public Health Officials to Track Illness Outbreaks


If an illness outbreak begins in a large city or a rural area, how long does it take national health interests to notice? Too long, some people think. Consider the outbreaks of bird flu in China; it often takes a critical mass of illnesses and deaths before someone makes the connection.

Using technology to try and identify patterns of illnesses is a direction government health agencies are hoping the future could take us. By identifying outbreaks sooner, we could slow or even stop the spread through isolation and quarantine, earlier vaccination and treatment development and the closure of municipal buildings like schools, airports and other places where people tend to congregate and spread diseases easier.

One such technology is Kinsa’s “smart thermometer,” a prototype technology looking for investment. Start-up Kinsa developed the thermometer, which has no power source of its own but instead connects to a smartphone (it’s currently built for Apple iOS) using an app to bridge the two, to help healthcare providers build a real-time map of human health that will help prevent the spread of illness, according to the Cultureist.

”We are still seeking better ways to track infectious disease both at the level of the individual as well as the community,” says Ken Staley, MD, former White House Director for Biodefense and an advisor to Kinsa. “Kinsa’s approach is exciting because it engages consumers — it can provide real value for individuals — and at the same time aggregates information in a way that provides value for clinicians and public health officials.”

A dozen years ago, public health experts, concerned at the spread of the SARS virus, tried to build just such a map by performing triage on airport travelers. It was a laborious, manual process that was very imperfect. With a tool like the Kinsa smart thermometer, it would faster and easier for public health personnel to track outbreaks and illnesses and determine their vector and spread.

The smartphone display shows the patient’s temperature and then provides a general diagnosis tool, according to Digital Trends. Users can select specific symptoms within the app to get an idea of possible treatment options

You can find a video about the Kinsa smart thermometer here on Vimeo.




Edited by Rich Steeves
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