Smart Thermometer, App Helping Oklahoma Schools Fight Spread Of Illness

A smart thermometer and associated smartphone app are helping Oklahoma schools stay ahead of possible illness outbreaks like COVID-19 and the flu.

According to Kinsa, more than 100 Oklahoma schools are taking part in its new FLUency program.

As experts predict this year’s flu season may be bad, many school districts are worried.

“We want to take the proper precautions to make sure that our students are here, and we don’t have an outbreak,” Millwood Elementary School Principal Candice Hamilton-Green said.

To help make that happen, staff and students at Millwood Elementary School have signed up for the Kinsa FLUency Program.

Results from smart thermometers along with symptoms (such as headache, sore throat, etc.) are logged into a smartphone app.

School nurses are able to see the data in real time and break it down by individual classroom.

Parents at home also share access to the data and are able to see if other students report similar symptoms to help decide whether or not their child should stay home.

“It will help us with early detection and also help us with knowing about potential illnesses that could be prevalent in the school,” Hamilton-Green said. “With that, we are able to determine if a student needs to stay home or if a staff member needs to stay home.”

The program came in handy in Anna Dickenson’s 3rd grade classroom after a student tested positive for COVID-19.

Early notification, Dickenson said, was key in preventing an outbreak.

“We were able to truly wipe down the desks, do the sanitation and then also take into consideration those children that might have been in close contact,” Dickenson said. “We were able to send them home as soon as possible, so that there was no other cases that might come up in our classroom.”

COVID-19 has proved many things, one of which being learning never stops.

“We’re taking each day as a learning experience,” Hamilton-Green said.

Click here for more information about the Kinsa FLUency program.