Over the past four years, the medical world has changed. A thermometer alone isn’t always the best way to determine if we are sick. And seeing a doctor can be a lot like a Zoom call with a coworker.
Now, a new gadget from Withings, the maker of smart healthcare devices (such as a smart scale and health monitoring watches), promises to let people get a much clearer picture of their health, without having to learn new skills or buy a cabinet full of medical equipment.
The Withings BeamO is a palm-sized tool that not only takes your temperature, but also includes an electrocardiogram (ECG), oximeter and a digital stethoscope, letting you monitor your heart and lungs as well.
It’s a tool that’s made with telemedicine in mind, giving doctors more information as they attempt to diagnose issues via video conferencing.
“BeamO is a transformative multiscope device,” said founder Eric Carreel in a statement. “Once, body temperature was the only health scan routinely taken at home. BeamO will revolutionize the measurement of the core vitals carried out during medical visits from the comfort of one’s own home. This crucial data will provide a vital overview of overall health or warning signs of potential areas of concern. … BeamO will be the thermometer of the future.”
The device measures much of this information via light wave sensors and acoustic information. Just hold the BeamO in your hand and it will begin working, displaying information such as your pulse and blood oxygen levels on its LED screen within a minute. To take your temperature, just run it across your forehead and it will use your temporal artery to give you an accurate read of whether you have a fever or not, similar to its previous thermometer, Thermo.
It’s the BeamO’s stethoscope feature that’s especially interesting, though. Using a tool that captures acoustic sound waves from your chest or back, you’ll hear your heart beating or oxygen rushing into your lungs. You’ll not only be able to listen to the audio yourself (via headphones), you can also stream it to your telehealth provider, who can instruct you to monitor in different areas of your chest.
The process, in many ways, is not entirely unlike the data that can be gleaned from some Apple Watch models, but it’s going to be a lot less expensive. The BeamO will be priced at $250 and Withings hopes to have it on shelves by June of this year. First, though, it needs to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration for its ECG functionality, so that June date is tentative.
One other possible advantage of this tool is that people will be better able to track their health readings on a day to day or ongoing basis, something that’s tough to do today. And Withings will integrate its app with BeamO, letting people track the readings and share them with medical professionals and family, as needed.
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