Smart thermometers help school to track illnesses

Lincoln Elementary School in Mt. Pleasant is taking part in a program that helps identify student illnesses.

At the beginning of the school year, Lincoln Elementary was selected to participate in the the Lysol + Kinsa FLUency health program.

'They provide free smart thermometers for any family that signs up for one,” said the school's administrative assistant Samantha Johnson, who administers the program. 'There's an app that syncs with it. It also asks health questions and gives guidance.”

The smart thermometers are provided by a company called Kinsa.

Kinsa's Director of Communications Jane Putnam said that the program helps schools identify trends in illnesses.

'The schools can see what's going around in school,” Putnam said. 'It allows them to make data-driven decisions.”

Parents are asked to use the thermometer each morning to check their child's temperature. If there is more than one child in the family, each child has a separate profile set up in the app.

The app records the temperature and asks a few short health questions, like if the child has a runny nose or a cough.

The app offers recommendations as to whether a child should stay home or see a doctor.

'Parents may be more inclined to see a doctor sooner,” Putnam said.

The information is shared anonymously with the school.

'Patient privacy is very important to us,” Putnam said.

The school has a dashboard with the information, which can be broken down by class and grade.

'We cannot see who the child is,” Johnson said. 'We can see the health of the class.

'We can see if something is isolated or buildingwide.”

Both the school and parents have access to the anonymous information.

Putnam said that, with the information, schools are able to make more proactive decisions regarding student health.

'It can help stop an illness from becoming an outbreak,” she said. 'The schools can take early action.”

Johnson said that the school received its first shipment of smart thermometers in September, and the program started in October.

'We've had 35 households receive a thermometer so far,” she said. 'We've been encouraging families to sign up.”

Any family that requests to participate is able to get a free smart thermometer.

Putnam said that once a school is in the program, they can continue to participate each year.

Last year, there were 1,400 schools nationwide that participated. This year, there are 4,000.

Lincoln Elementary is the only school in Southeast Iowa in the program at this time, according to Putnam.