The fact Queensland start-up Medic8 Health put on hold a crowdfunding drive for its smart stethoscope last month, doesn’t mean smart medical devices don’t deserve a chance.
Despite having raised $528,000 from backers in more than 100 countries towards a $700,000 Kickstarter target for a wireless home version of the traditional doctor’s staple, Medic8 Health decided to seek medical approval before accepting the funds.
The self-inserted temperature sensor Bloom Ring connects to a fertility app.
It was a nice idea – the Stethee could be linked to a smartphone or tablet and used to track and analyse vital health signs and share them with others – but it isn’t the only DIY medical aid to come off the digital drawing board in recent times.
Here are six other smart health gadgets and apps for your home medicine cabinet:
The Medtronics Smart Guard pump system for diabetics. Photo: Supplied
1. Tonight’s the night
Trying for a happy event – or perhaps you’re hoping not to have one? Prima-Temp’s self-inserted temperature sensor may be able to assist. Currently in development, the Bloom Ring can detect subtle pre-ovulation changes in body temperature and send an alert to your smartphone when you’re most likely to conceive.
2. Smarter sugar levels
Not one for the home medico but it’s being slated as a smart solution for diabetics, for whom continuous monitoring of biometrics is an inescapable part of their daily routine.
Part of the Cue kit with the app.
The newly launched Medtronics SmartGuard pump system detects when sugar levels are falling and turns off a patient’s insulin pump to avoid their becoming hypoglycemic. The first patients to receive the pumps were a child in Perth, WA, and a lady in Port Stephens, NSW, last month.
3. Message in a bottle
The Eyenaemia app still in construction.
Doctors use urine tests to detect a host of conditions, from pregnancy to urinary tract infections, kidney disease and diabetes.
There’ll soon be an app for that, courtesy of United States health electronics start-up Scanadu which is developing Scanaflo, a smartphone-linked kit to test glucose, protein, blood, bilirubin and a range of other markers in the privacy of your own bathroom.
Analytica’s PeriCoach will tell you if your exercising your pelvic floor enough. Photo: Supplied
4. Lab in a box
Analyse your own snot, spit and blood for signs of sickness? Why not, say the founders of Cue, an American home test kit being spruiked as a ‘lab in a box’. The Cue wand is used to collect nasal fluid to diagnose flu, saliva to gauge testosterone levels and blood to test inflammation, vitamin D or fertility levels.
The wand is placed in a cartridge where sensors convert the sample into digital results which are sent to the user’s smartphone via Bluetooth.
The project has attracted more than $US8.5 million in investor funding, with the first units expected to ship for $199 later this year.
5. Steak for breakfast
Tired, listless and wondering whether grandma was right about swapping breakfast muesli for steak and eggs? Jarrel Seah and Jennifer Tang, the clever kids from Monash University who make up Team Eyenaemia, have come up with a simple, non-invasive way to gauge iron levels without the need to visit the GP for a blood test.
Their yet-to-be-available app was last year’s global winner of the Microsoft Imagine Cup. It calculates the risk of anaemia – a condition which affects millions of people around the world – by analysing a selfie of the eye. Results are sent to the user’s smartphone.
The pair has received $50,000 from the Gates Foundation to continue developing the app.
6. Suck it up
Have to be careful when you cough, sneeze or break into a belly laugh? Urinary incontinence is an issue for scores of women, post- childbirth or menopause.
Pelvic floor exercises can help and Australian developer Analytica has created the PeriCoach, an insertable device linked to an app to help women evaluate whether they’re doing them properly. It provides real time feedback on the strengths of your squeezes and gives you a nudge when you’ve missed your daily workout.
Added any high-tech gadgets to your home medicine cabinet lately? Share them in the comments and consult your doctor if symptoms persist.