Kinsa's internet-connected smart thermometer, paired to a mobile app, aggregates consumers' temperature and symptoms data. This real-time data enables Kinsa to track where in the U.S. the illnesses start so that health resources can be better allocated. Kinsa

Kinsa believes the only way to curb a pandemic is to know where it is happening in real time. The San Francisco-based health technology company was launched in 2012 to help stop the spread of infectious illness — in particular, the seasonal flu — through earlier detection and earlier response. Their means? An internet-connected smart thermometer, paired to a mobile app, which aggregates consumers' temperature and symptoms data This real-time data enables Kinsa to track where in the U.S. the illnesses start, so the health industry can be better prepared to mobilize the right resources in the right places at the right times. Now, Kinsa says, the data gathered from its smart thermometer could help to predict future COVID-19 outbreaks by relying on the data it has collected for years to determine what the U.S. can expect from a normal cold and flu season. The model takes what is currently being seen — a spike in illness — and subtracts the "norm." What they're left with is an anomaly, which can be correlated to coronavirus.

Beating the CDC lag time

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been keeping tabs on illnesses, such as the flu, for decades. But the CDC relies on people to visit health-care departments, which then make diagnoses and report those diagnoses. That creates a lag time that Kinsa doesn't have. Kinsa collects its health data in real time, therefore pinpointing hot spots for the flu before CDC reports become available, according to a 2020 study in Health Informatics Journal. Singh says Kinsa's real-time data collection is vital during a pandemic, where every day counts. "Our mission is to curb the spread of infectious illness through early detection. A thermometer is a means to an end," says Singh. "If you want to know where disease is spreading, you have to know the symptoms. The best way was to piggyback off a tool [people] already had."

Kinsa currently has thermometers in more than a million households across the U.S. About 150,000 temperatures are recorded every day. Kinsa

A trove of info to mine

Kinsa currently has thermometers in more than a million households. More than 2 million users nationwide record about 150,000 temperature readings per day. Thermometers cost about $40 for a standard model and about $70 for an ear model. The thermometers connect to a smartphone via Bluetooth, uploading location, temperatures and user-inputted symptoms to Kinsa's database. The result is a trove of information for the company to then mine for patterns. "How do you curb the next pandemic if you don't know where it's starting? You have to know in real time," Singh says. "You have to know severity, how long-lasting is it, how many days does it take to get better, what are the worst symptoms. All of that boils down to accurate geolocated data."