I have learned so much through this process and am very appreciative of the interest and support. The boy in the picture with this post is Oskar Szajnuk, the brother of Ava, who was featured in my initial entry on this project. Oskar experiences both heat and cold sensitivity. He is shown with the two devices that I propose to investigate, the Embr labs Wristify and the Raiing wearable thermonitor. Oskar, Ava and their family motivate me to keep seeking support as the voting period for the challenge reaches its end.
There is a lot of last minute movement, at the time of this ranking my entries are in 3rd and 5th place by points. Some of the other projects have had dramatic spikes in their votes today and I anticipate continued movement until the voting closes. If you haven’t voted, there are a few days left:
Project 1 – Wearable Thermometer
Project 2 – Wristify heating and cooling
Some of you may have tried to vote but encountered problems. It is fairly easy to verify whether your vote registered by hovering over the “votes” and scanning for your name. I know a few of you have had some issues and really appreciate your effort.
This link shows the “real time” status of the projects, sorted by votes, not by scores.
When I submitted my two entries for the “Wearable Devices in Healthcare” challenge a few weeks ago, I could not have anticipated the support for this project. I have appreciated the comments, the social network shares and the votes. Some of you have shared personal experiences highlighting the importance of temperature regulation, this issue clearly goes beyond rare diseases. One person shared that her child has hypothyroidism and that her body temp trends low, creating difficult and frustrating conversations with their pediatricians. A physician friend shared about a difficult patient care decision about whether or not to treat with antibiotics. Another physician shared great thoughts about the vagueness of our definition for fever – is it an increase in body temperature above “normal” baseline or is it a set of inflammatory responses? Through your comments I have learned even more about this issue and am even more motivated. I’m writing this from an informatics conference. One of the keynote speakers addressed what he sees as the top 4 trends to track. One of them is wearables. These technologies move measurement closer to the patient and open new, enabling, models for data and healthcare. I’m excited to share more about what I learn through this process and appreciate the help and support.
For the record, if given the opportunity to compete for the Grand Prize in Boston, my plan would be to divide the money between the UMKC and Children’s Mercy foundations to support the work of the pilot.
