Smart Thermometers and App Track Public Health Trends

January 2, 2023Digital healthcare technology company WHO has released a solution called Kinsa Insights that enables companies to use aggregated data about health conditions across the United States to market or direct products to the right location, or to help hospitals prepare for increased workloads of patients. The resulting predictions of infection transmission are derived from Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)-based data from Kinsa’s wireless thermometers used by individuals in their homes, as well as other app-based information.

Kinsa’s thermometer and app were released in 2014, and multiple versions of the solution are now being sold by retailers across the United States. Since its launch, the company has collected, managed and analyzed data. After years of studying the information and ensuring its predictive integrity, the firm has released Kinsa Insights.

The Kinsa Insights solution provides forecasts of infection transmission across the United States.

The solution is commercially available to consumer packaged goods (CPG) and healthcare companies, as well as other enterprises seeking to have information about health conditions in their area. By understanding where diseases are spreading and with predictions about the future health of an area’s population, hospitals can better prepare to serve those in need, Kinsa reports, while CPG brands and retailers can leverage the trends to better stock their shelves with relevant products. .

While Kinsa initially offered its analytics as a custom service to public health entities and healthcare organizations, its focus has recently been on CPG companies. Several brands have already used the solution, which combines thermometer data and analytics and provides forecasts for regions of the country.

Making predictions that exceed the CDC

Brands using the data can direct inventory to their retailers in a particular region and thereby avoid shortages, says Nita Nehru, vice president of communications at Kinsa. So far, she claims, the solution has beaten the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in publicly identifying where diseases will grow by about two to three weeks.

Nita Nehru

The company’s founder and CEO, Inder Singh, has a background in public health, having served as executive vice president of the Clinton Foundation’s Health Access Initiative (CHAI). He was frustrated by the way funds are allocated to stop the spread of infectious diseases, Nehru says, and by the allocation of products and services focused on preventing or stopping the spread of infectious diseases. Too often, Singh found, there wasn’t enough real-time information about where symptoms were starting or how fast they were spreading.

With this problem in mind, Nehru says, Singh set out to find a way to capture unique data “that the healthcare system completely lacks—he had a mission to create a real-time map of human health.” His new company, Kinsa, created a thermometer connected to an app that could benefit users by providing their temperature and related practical advice, but could also collect community-wide data. The company chose the thermometer as its data-gathering product, Nehru says, because a thermometer is often the first and only device individuals turn to in their home to confirm an illness.

The early version of the smart thermometer could be plugged directly into a smartphone’s headphone jack so the app could capture temperature information. In 2017, Kinsa released a Bluetooth-enabled version of its thermometer after the headphone jack was discontinued on some smartphones. With the product now in use by 2.5 million households, the company has aggregated data captured by the app about consumer health, as well as collecting weather conditions and other regional factors. This information is linked to each thermometer reading, and the system can detect trends and predict outbreaks associated with various diseases.

How the system works

Individuals purchasing the product first download the corresponding Kinsa app for their Android or iOS based devices. Next, they set up their user profile. Multiple family members can connect to the app and thermometer. While the thermometer simply measures temperatures, the app provides information based on results or symptoms given by users when they feel unwell. The system may use data related to an individual’s age, gender and health conditions. The company likens the app to “a nurse in your pocket, helping your family and community get better faster.”

Inder Singh

Individuals can be asked a series of questions about the severity of symptoms, after which the system provides personalized guidance on reducing symptoms, as well as when to seek medical attention and other information. Users can view information such as any infections that may be spreading at their child’s school or in their local area. Those using the app do not need to use the thermometer. If they don’t feel well, they can use the app for recommendations based on their symptoms. Kinsa Insights collects anonymous data about temperature readings and about symptoms that are reported through the app.

Over the past five to seven years, the company has built insights into artificial intelligence and machine learning to determine how well it can predict disease. This data is now being used by brands responding to disease-driven demand, with products ranging from flu and cold medicine to disinfectants. The company’s demand forecasting solution, Nehru says, allows brands and retailers to answer the question, “Where do I need to stock so I can give consumers the medications they need?”

Some healthcare companies are using the data collected to better predict how much bed capacity and staff they will need to have on hand to meet a demand, such as a local flu surge. The data also provides value to health insurers, the company explains, as they can better direct proactive messages to members to ensure they stay out of the hospital.

Data acquisition to healthcare brands and companies

This represents a different approach to infection management, according to Matthew Bolden, Kinsa’s senior director of product marketing. “We’re capturing real biometric data from people before they enter the healthcare system,” he says. The solution features the company’s Inside Explorer platform, Bolden says. The analyzes are assisted by a team of epidemiologists, he adds, who provide regular updates for a given region. The solution can create disease predictions for 30 different symptoms and categories, he explains.

Matthew Bolden

While Kinsa has been offering such predictions for several years, the company is only now releasing the platform commercially, after compiling enough data and testing its tracking and prediction accuracy over several flu seasons. CPG companies can use the data, for example, to see that flu symptoms are on the rise and projected to rise in one state while falling in another. They can then move the product to a distribution center in a growing area. Retailers can also use the data to reroute products from one store to another.

Although the technology was in use before the outbreak of COVID-19, Nehru says, the data has helped underscore the need for infectious disease predictions. “Our mission has always been to help stop the spread of infectious disease,” she says, “and when COVID came on the scene, what was really unique was that we could show that something unusual was happening across country,” at the beginning of the outbreak. .

In past years, Nehru says, Kinsa focused on providing its data and analytics to public health agencies, as well as local and state governments. “We felt it was the right thing to do,” she explains, “and we would be able to help.” However, the company is now targeting its solution to brands, retailers and hospitals. The players able to act on this information, she adds, are more likely to be businesses, such as brands and drugstore chains, than public health organizations. “In the last year or so, we’ve focused on focusing a lot more on brands and retailers, and reducing our emphasis on public health work.”

To date, Kinsa reports, its solution has proven to reduce forecast errors—incorrect predictions of disease trends—by 50 percent. Companies already using the system include Mucinexwhich uses Kinsa’s two-week forecast for coughs, colds and flu, and Johnson & Johnson Consumer Health (JJCH), which is using technology to build long-term supply capacity and make better financial planning decisions.

Key relationships:

• BLE-based thermometer data is providing data for Kinsa’s solution to help brands, retailers and healthcare companies predict the spread of infectious diseases in communities.
• Products that help prevent and recover from disease can be better used where they are needed, which increases sales and better serves those who are sick.