Taking care of a sick child can be a harrowing experience for a parent. You don’t want to wake the child up if he or she is sleeping, but you need to know their temperature in order to make the right decisions for their care.
 
The same goes for hospitals and medical facilities, where taking the temperature of hundreds of patients is time-consuming yet critical. A wireless system would solve many problems.
 
TempTraq may have the solution to these concerns. Spun out of Blue Spark Technologies, a printed flexible battery specialist, TempTraq is a wearable wireless thermometer in the form of a soft patch. Launched at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show, where it received numerous awards, TempTraq is now registered with the FDA, and is available in the market.
 
The TempTraq patch is powered by a printed battery and uses Bluetooth Low Energy to continuously monitor body temperature for 24 hours, sending alerts via a unique code to Apple or Android compatible mobile devices within 40 feet of the patch.
 
Temperature is measured every 10 seconds for 24 hours, and the historical data can be shared via email with doctors or family members. Parents and caregivers will be sent alerts when temperatures reach a certain temperature level set by the user. The TempTraq app can be used to simultaneously monitor multiple thermometers.
 
“TempTraq allows parents to keep a close watch on their child’s temperature without having to continually disturb them, while also gathering crucial data every 10 seconds for up to 24 hours,” said John Gannon, president and CEO of Blue Spark Technologies.
 
Matt Ream, VP marketing for Blue Spark Technologies, said that TempTraq came as a result of work the company was doing on NFC time temperature data loggers.
 
“We had morphed our technology into a more vertically-integrated company, and were becoming more solutions-oriented, spending more time on systems integration and product design,” Ream said. “We did a lot of work in the area of NFC time temperature data loggers for supply chain logistics, and John Gannon, our CEO, asked what would happen if we stuck a time temperature logger onto a Band-Aid. It struck us as an interesting idea and we decided to take the project on ourselves.
 
“Our manufacturing is up and running, and we have filed quite a bit of IP around it,” Ream added.
 
After conducting market research and consumer testing, Blue Spark felt they had come up with a unique product that could be a game-changing technology.
 
“It tested really well with our market research,” Ream said. “There are two major advantages: there is no physical contact to take the temperature, and there is an early warning system. No one wants to wake up their child. When Bluetooth Low Energy became a viable technology, it allowed the TempTraq bandage to become hands-free. You can be in the next room and still get accurate readings.”
 
Ream said that TempTraq is now commercially available, with target markets ranging from parents to medical facilities.
 
“TempTraq has been very well received,” Ream noted. “We just launched TempTraq to market, and initial sales have been great. We launched it on our eCommerce site, Amazon and Diapers.com, with the goal of getting to the retail markets. Our first target market is parents with children under 12, and the clinical market, hospitals and managed care facilities have expressed interest. With Bluetooth Low Energy, a hospital could monitor hundreds of patients, since each bandage has a unique identifier.
 
“We are excited about this and are eager to get this into retail,” Ream added. “We can see variants of TempTraq, such as longer battery life and different sensors. This is a new step for our company.
 
TempTraq includes a free downloadable Apple or Android compatible app, and is available now for $24.99 at www.temptraq.com.