Smart thermometer keeps track of the whole family’s health

Kinsa enables families to track their health, analyze their symptoms and learn about illnesses going round in their neighborhood.

Even if parents own a thermometer at home, they can only make basic assumptions about their kids’ or their own health from the result without consulting a doctor. The Kinsa smart thermometer aims to change that, enabling families to track their health, analyze their symptoms and learn about illnesses going round in their neighborhood.

Able to plug straight into the headphone jack of any smartphone, the thermometer comes with a companion app, turning the phone into the device’s display. While taking a reading, an engaging animation plays to keep kids entertained. If the temperature is outside of a healthy range, the app then asks if the patient has been feeling any of the symptoms of common conditions and helps them take the appropriate action. Parents can also bring up a reading history for each individual family member, check whether other kids on their private school network are coming down with an illness, or even if other Kinsa users in the local area are being affected. The app gives recommendations on what they should do if their child is ill, such as taking them out of school or arranging a doctor’s appointment. The video below is a demonstration of the app from the New York Tech Meetup 2013:

Kinsa has a mission to enable the crowdsourcing of health data to give residents a better context for their family’s ilnesses, helping to track and prevent their spread. The startup aims to launch soon in New York City, San Francisco, and a few other locations, before expanding into Europe. Are there other ways to help smartphone users easily keep track of their health?

Spotted by Murray Orange, written by Springwise