Since the earliest thermometers were developed, taking point-in-time temperature readings has been the standard of care. Recently, Internet of Things (IoT) technology has made it possible to monitor body temperature continuously and remotely. Introducing Temp Pal, a wearable temperature sensor that not only accurately gathers vital sign data, but is also comfortable, unobtrusive and affordable — opening up many mainstream use cases to improve the lives of patients in institutional care and at home.

For many women, their menstrual cycle is often irregular or easily disrupted. In addition to negatively affecting their quality of life, this can also have serious implications when they are trying to conceive.

When preparing to conceive, women are often advised to track their basal body temperature. Women usually have lower temperatures before ovulation and higher temperatures afterwards.

However, determining basal body temperature has traditionally been challenging. True basal body temperature is typically achieved when a person is asleep, meaning they are unable to take it themselves. In many cases, people take their temperature immediately after waking, which can be stressful and requires that they not engage in any activity until measurement is completed. In addition, measurements typically need to be taken at the same time daily for several months to establish a proper picture of the situation.

It was a situation just like this that led iWEECARE Co. Ltd. to develop a better solution. The wife of the company’s founder and CEO struggled to conceive for two-and-a-half years. Among the many techniques she employed on doctor’s orders was basal body temperature monitoring.

Every day she woke up at 5:30am to take her temperature, lying still for five to 10 minutes with a thermometer under her tongue. Afterward, she was often unable to go back to sleep, and was constantly anxious about forgetting to take a measurement or being unable to wake up on schedule.

Accurate, compact and convenient Temp Pal allows for round-the-clock monitoring and data analysis
iWEECARE’s stated mission is to develop healthcare products that are convenient to use and improve people’s lives. In line with that mission, it developed Temp Pal, a wearable medical thermometer.

Temp Pal is the world’s smallest, most accurate wearable smart thermometer. In addition to being highly sensitive and accurate to ±0.05°C of basal body temperature, iWEECARE leverages the best of Taiwanese miniaturization technology to make Temp Pal about the size of a postage stamp. Its exclusive, patented flexible form adapts to the shape of the human body, where it is affixed to an armpit with double-sided medical tape. The device is rechargeable.

What sets Temp Pal apart is Blue-tooth connectivity to interface with a custom-built smartphone app and built-in cloud service. Through the app, Temp Pal provides real-time monitoring of a subject’s body temperature and historical trend charts. The app also has customizable high and low-temperature alarms, as well as the ability to record and track when medication is administered. The system has a convenient and secure sharing feature that allows caregivers to monitor the wearer’s temperature remotely. When used to track fevers, these features help parents monitor their child’s condition and gives them peace of mind at night.

An ideal solution for medical facilities that reduces costs and improves the safety of staff
As Temp Pal is unobtrusive and noninvasive, it can be used in any application that requires body temperature monitoring, not just for fertility and childcare purposes. For example, it can be deployed in long-term care facilities, outdoor work environments, smart homes and sports centers.
Medical facilities have already begun fielding Temp Pal, particularly in negative-pressure isolation wards used to treat COVID-19 patients. As a high body temperature is often the first indicator of complications from infection, the ability to constantly monitor for a fever as it starts is invaluable to medical professionals and improves the quality of care for patients.

As the data from Temp Pal are displayed on the smartphone app, it is an ideal solution for monitoring the temperature of COVID-19 patients remotely. As taking readings requires no physical interaction with a patient after the initial application of the sensor, Temp Pal helps to minimize medical personnel’s exposure to the coronavirus. Remote patient monitoring also saves staff time, thereby lowering costs for medical facilities.

Temp Pal has been deployed at Taipei’s Cheng Hsin General Hospital, the affiliated hospital of National University of Ireland and a hospital in Thailand, as well as dozens of postpartum care, daycare and long-term care centers in Taiwan. Furthermore, Show Chwan Memorial Hospital has integrated Temp Pal into its neonatal intensive care unit hospital information system.

Looking towards the future with customized back-end systems, disposable devices and additional types of sensors

In Taiwan, iWEECARE supplies medical facilities with a customized back-end management system and online dashboard. The management system is tailored to the requirements of a facility’s nurses stations. It is designed to interface with hospital and network information systems through a custom-built application programming interface (API).

Overseas, iWEECARE works with systems integrators to ensure that Temp Pal works with their local healthcare systems. This collaboration is mainly aimed at guaranteeing a stable connection for the device, with the systems integrators performing the deployment. These partnerships have borne fruit in other ways, such as improvements that allow Temp Pal to be used as a tracker for wearers inside facilities.

Due to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, iWEECARE is working on other advancements to improve the quality and efficiency of healthcare providers. For example, it is developing a disposable version of Temp Pal to reduce the costs and risks for medical facilities associated with charging and disinfecting devices. The firm is also working on additional types of sensors to create a more comprehensive solution.

SELLING POINTS

• Exclusive, patented design ensures a comfortable fit
• Postage stamp-sized wearable that is fully rechargeable
• Accurate to within 0.05°C (0.09°F) of basal body temperature
• Linked to the cloud via Bluetooth connection to smartphone app
• Round-the-clock monitoring and data collection used to create trend charts
• Back-end management system ties into hospital and network information systems via custom-built API