UK developer BlueMaestro has announced a temperature-sensing baby pacifier with the somewhat obvious name Pacifi. According to Mobihealthnews (but frustratingly not on their website), the pacifier sends temperature data via Bluetooth Smart to an iPhone or Android app. Parents can record medication dosing and reminders, track temperature and medication over time, and set up an alarm when baby runs a high predetermined temperature. It’s also dishwasher safe. Pacifi joins Raiing Wireless‘ body thermometer FDA cleared in 2012 (now iThermometer) and Kinsa’s plug-in smart thermometer which took a crowdsourcing approach to local public health. It is not cleared for sale yet in the UK or US, but was shown at last month’s Mobile World Congress Barcelona and the Smart UK Project in London. Unfortunately, it may be a while before Quantified Self Moms can put it on the list for their baby showers, along with the Owlet monitoring sock, Mimo onesie and iTeddy [TTA 10 Sept]. Related: MedCityNews compares Mimo to adult sleep monitor Lark, awarding the matchup to Mimo. The real matchup is Owlet versus Mimo (see this Editor’s comment). (Also see our comments here discussing the safety of RF monitoring around babies.)
Quick Tuesday takes on health tech
Long-term sensors, smart thermometers and the Scanadu Nirvana
The first study of long term use of carbon nanotubes as implanted sensors has been published in Nature Nanotechnology. The nanotubes were implanted for a year in animals to track nitrous oxide (NO), an indicator of inflammation which is important in and of itself, but the level of NO is also not understood long term in cancer. To detect NO, the tubes are wrapped in DNA with a particular sequence and wrapped in an alginate gel to stay in place for a recorded 400 days. The MIT team working on this is also working on nanotubes for real-time detection of glucose levels, towards an accurate insulin pump that would end the diabetic’s perpetual Battle of Stalingrad. MIT News and FierceHealthIT.
The Kinsa smart thermometer for iPhone and Android received a glowing article in Fast Company Design. (more…)
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