Blood pressure, blood oxygen, body temperature, heart rate: these are important physiological measures that are helpful in tracking your health. In most cases, you need multiple devices to take these readings, but Scanadu believes that they can do it all with a simple hand-held disc. Their Scout device is designed to gather all this information simply by holding the plastic puck to the side of your forehead, and it will take the readings with a non-invasive set of optical scanners. The device relays the results to a smartphone or tablet via Bluetooth, which then sends it to the cloud for storage and sharing.
The product is reportedly going to start shipping to Indiegogo backers later this month. It is still an “investigative” device at this point, as the company has not yet received FDA approval which will require clinical trials to verify the accuracy of the data that it produces. As a result, the early adopters will be asked to be beta testers and submit their data for analysis. As a result, it still remains to be seen whether or not Scanadu can deliver on its promises of accurate “non-invasive” measurement of vital signs.
At the same time, the company has also announced the Scanaflo, which is a device that will test for levels of a dozen different biomarkers in urine, including blood, glucose, and protein. This information could be useful in the early detection and diagnosis of diseases and chronic conditions, as well as pregnancy. The product is still under development; the company hopes for FDA approval later in 2015.
