FUTURE: Kinsa Connected Health Thermometer

by Lori Cunningham

Earlier this month we reviewed INRIX, a free traffic monitor app that gets data from other drivers.  Once an accident happens, INRIX users are faithful to report it, ensuring other INRIX users don’t get ensnared in the same trap.  I’ve used it a number of times now to travel to Los Angeles and found it very helpful.  Without information from other users, the app would be useless.  But armed with traffic patterns, you have timely useful information to make your commute less stressful.

Now, the same idea is being transferred to health.  Kinsa has created an inexpensive smart thermometer that connects to your free smartphone Kinsa app  to help you keep track of your child’s (or anyone else) temperature.  But it does so much more than that.  If other parents at your school or within your child’s playgroup, are using the Kinsa thermometer, you can create a private group with them, enabling you to view their health status.  Taking it a step further, Kinsa will track generic data (temperatures, symptoms, illnesses, etc.) from all Kinsa users and make it available on a map so users can see illnesses in their surrounding community.

Kinsa’s mission is to “create the world’s first real-time map of health, enabling society to track and stop the spread of illness.”

The Kinsa Smart Thermometer can read a temperature in less than 10 seconds, contains no batteries, LCD, or processor, is thin, flexible, and built to be comfortable for kids.  To help its mission, Kinsa is working on unique ways to gather funding, so that even your pediatrician may have them available to give out for free to her/his patients, thus increasing the availability of generic readings in your city.

The Kinsa Smart Thermometer app can help you manage your children’s’ healthcare by saving their temperature data, allowing you to add symptoms, and even send this info. directly to your doctor, spouse, or other caregiver.  Another unique feature is the smart app’s ability to tell you, that out of 7 of the most common illnesses children get, when you’re child is contagious and how long it typically takes for your child to get better.  The founder of the Kinsa Smart Thermometer, Inder Singh, ran part of the Clinton Foundation’s International health program.  He enabled millions of mothers and children overseas to receive life-saving treatments for deadly diseases and infections.  He envisioned the Kinsa Smart Thermometer as a community tool to halt the spread of illnesses in communities.

Watch the video below to get a better idea of how this simple idea could change the way we deal with illness within our families and communities.

Kinsa Smart Thermometer from Kinsa on Vimeo.

The Kinsa Smart Thermometer is not yet available, but promises to be truly revolutionary.  The cost is expected to be  similar to a premium flex tip oral digital thermometer you’d find at your local drugstore.  Kinsa is currently seeking funding on Indiegogo to raise funds to begin further production.  It is their hope to begin shipping the product in November.

We believe the Kinsa Connected Health Thermometer has the potential to dramatically affect the way we evaluate our kids’ illnesses at home and in the community.  The WellConnectedMom.com will report back to you once we find out when the Kinsa Thermometer is available.