With the rise in technological inventions, wearable thermometers have become quite popular for measuring and monitoring body temperature during fever or basal temperature. They are quite easy to use, inexpensive, provide accurate and continuous readings. Most thermometers remain connected to any smartphone/tablet for displaying data.
Importance of general thermometers
Skin temperature happens to be an important physiological marker that happens to react to any presence of illness/injury as well as helps in providing insight into the various interactions between the body and the surrounding environment. Thermometers were developed to serve the purpose of continuous monitoring of body temperature through the skin. Most such devices are designed to meet the clinical accuracy standards.
Wearable thermometers: An upgraded version
Going forward, wearable deep body thermometers prove to be a promising avenue for monitoring the circadian rhythms and presence of mental stress in the wearer's daily life. Wearable sensors have become more and more accurate across the past decade. They now provide accurate data sans the guesswork and bias for the health-care applications via transduction of the various physiological parameters. For pulse oximeters, it is the heart and respiratory rate, for thermometers it is the skin temperature, and for fitness rings, it is the body motion.
The usefulness of wearable thermometers
Personalized data that is generated has been empowering the doctors towards making better decisions informed with these new insights. The newest wearable can monitor a wide range of things like blood pressure, oxygen saturation, body temperature, heart rate, etc., which helps the physicians in looking after multiple patients remotely, often from the comforts of their own homes.
Role of the wearable thermometer in COVID-19
Thermometers have been key to addressing the needs of the current pandemic as well. Thermometers can check the patients' temperature remotely which helps to track the coronavirus symptoms that are exhibited by patients in real-time. If a patient’s symptoms are worsening or improving, the device will issue automated system alerts for notifying clinical staff. There will also be alerts for releasing a patient upon finishing his/her quarantine period and appears to be symptom-free.
For the doctors, wearable thermometers have provided them with the unprecedented capacity of monitoring the patients at their homes. Patient monitoring tools that act remotely like digital pulse oximeters and thermometers have been especially useful in the COVID-19 situation. It is only expected that their use will increase along with time and will continue to benefit individuals and the medical/wellness industry as a whole.