Santa Clara, California-based Swaive aims to launch its infrared ear thermometer during the first quarter of 2015 -- as early as January. The device, which will retail for $99.99, connects to iPhones via Bluetooth to help users track whether a fever is trending up or down. The thermometer features an LED screen that displays the temperature reading as well as an LED flashlight to help parents take their kid's temperature at night while they're sleeping. Swaive's team took inspiration from the design of Apple's mouse.
Swaive's Founder Gurpal Bhoot told MobiHealthNews that the thermometer will be available online from the company's site and at some brick-and-mortar retail locations, but the company is still finalizing the specific store chains in the US and Canada that will carry it.
The thermometer was previously available via preorder at a lower, early bird pricepoint of $79.99. Swaive just began taking its second wave of preorders, but at the device's retail price -- $99.99. The company expects to ship new preorders by late March 2015 at the latest.
Those who preordered the device previously were promised a mid-November ship date, but because of the usual manufacturing and certification hangups (Bluetooth, FDA registration), the company pushed back the preorder ship date until January too. Bhoot said the device has all the necessary certifications and registrations now. While a thermometer like this one is technically a Class II medical device, the FDA no longer asks device makers of this kind of device to go through a 510(k) process. That's thanks to a de-regulatory proposal the FDA published this past summer.
Bhoot also said the Swaive app has been submitted to Apple for review and he expects it to appear in the AppStore soon. While other iPhone-connected thermometers have announced plans for HealthKit integration, Swaive may be the first to pull it off since the development work on the actual integration is already finished. That said others already have devices in the market.
Bhoot said that those other smartphone-connected thermometers have different form factors from Swaive's ear thermometer. Kinsa just announced that its iPhone-connected stick thermometer is now available in Apple and CVS stores. Raiing's wearable patch thermometer is another potential competitor for Swaive. Bhoot says that while these devices need to meet certain requirements from the FDA, infrared ear thermometers offer the most consistently accurate readings of all the potential smartphone-connected temperature sensors in the market today.
Swaive was founded in mid-2012 after Bhoot completed his undergrad studies at California Polytechnic State University San Louis Obispo where his final year project was an iPhone-connected breathalyzer. Bhoot said that the thermometer was not the first device that Swaive developed, just the first it's commercialized. Future offerings from Swaive may be based on some of the technology he developed at school, he hinted.
