Yep, a blog that’s all about home medical thermometers.

Health Thermometers - Archives

This blog remained active for only a few months. Here is an archive of postings. (For more information on thermometers please see my Personal Health Monitor Blog.)

Back to Basics - the Thermometer in the Armpit
What thermometer is best for your child? KMBC-TV in Kansas City reports that recommendations have changed over the years, and many parents are confused:

Stephanie Brightman, the mother of 6-month-old Kaden, recently bought a widely-advertised ear thermometer, and now she's suffering from buyer's remorse.

"It was never accurate. I would take the temperature, then switch to the other ear, and it would say a totally different temperature. I just ended up selling it at a garage sale," Brightman said.

"They record eardrum temperature and so it was difficult to align them properly. If there was too much wax in the ear it was invalid, so, for lots of reasons they were inaccurate," said Dr. Kenneth Wible, with Children's Mercy.

....Brightman said she was originally told that a rectal temperature was most accurate, but [KMBC's Kelly] Eckerman reported that method is no longer recommended because of the risk of injuring a child's rectum.

Also, Wible said to get rid of mercury thermometers because they're a hazard if they break.

Doctors said a digital thermometer may be the best option for parents.

"The simplest and most accurate is the digital thermometer in the armpit. You have to make certain it's in contact with the skin and make sure it's tight to seal it in and have to hold it there for three minutes," Wible said.
April 3rd, 2006

Thermotek No Touch Thermometer
I've been writing (scroll down) about the Italian-developed no-contact thermometer that's to be released in the US. A press release suggested it was the world's first totally non-contact thermometer.

Thanks to No Touch Thermometers Australia I've learned of another non-contact thermometer, made by Thermotek. This takes an instant reading when held close to the temporal artery above either eye, without touching or wiping across the forehead. It is a fast, accurate and non-invasive method of taking temperatures without even touching the body, and is apparently gaining in popularity in hospitals, especially in infectious disease units.

You can read here of a Norwegian study which found the Thermotek (known in Norway as the Comaco) to be superior to most rivals. A little more detail is at this British commercial site, and further information is available by contacting No Touch Thermometers Australia.
February 17th, 2006

Contactless Thermometer
The Italian-developed no-contact thermometer is to be marketed in the US. According to a press release:

American Scientific Resources today announced an agreement between its subsidiary, Kidz-Med Inc. and Italian manufacturer Tecnimed srl to handle the U.S. retail and consumer distribution of the Thermofocus clinical thermometer. The Thermofocus is the world's first totally "non-contact" thermometer and has been marketed successfully for years in Europe and globally.

The Thermofocus will be the newest product in the Kidz-Med line of children's health and safety devices. The thermometer has patented infrared technology that allows a temperature to be taken without touching or waking a patient or sleeping baby. The device is totally non-invasive and takes a temporal artery temperature at the forehead, which is a preferred site because of its source of blood flow directly from the head. The Thermofocus is accurate, immediate, and hygienic because it never touches the body.
February 9th, 2006

Random Temperature Experiments on Slugs
Engadget reports that Ebara Jitsugyo of Japan has developed a no-contact thermometer, and it comments:

Using infrared rays, the device is able to measure the subject’s body temperature in just 3 seconds to within 0.2 degrees centigrade. And because it’s contactless, the device is said to reduce the risk associated with the spread of disease possible when using traditional thermometers regardless of your, um, preferred orifice. It’s also likely to be loads of fun at your next kegger or for conducting random temperature experiments on other carbon based lifeforms like, say, slugs. The fun is only limited to the extent of your twisted imagination.

However, this report from JCN Network suggests that Ebara is doing no more than acting as distributor for a thermometer developed by Technimed of Italy. And in fact this newspaper article (in Japanese) confirms that the thermometer comes from Italy. (Newlaunches.com and Gearlog also mistakenly report that the thermometer has been developed by Ebara.)
February 2nd, 2006

Praise for Kaz Kids' Thermometers
Last time I looked, it was Forbes magazine reporting on children's thermometers (scroll down). Now it's the turn of Business Week, which features a lengthy and laudatory report on Kaz and its Vicks line of prize-winning children's thermometers, concentrating on how they were designed.

Although Kaz won't disclose sales figures, it's clear that the new thermometers paid off in accolades from the medical and design communities, at least. The auxiliary (under-arm) thermometer won a Gold IDEA award from the Industrial Design Society of America and Business Week in 2004, and the rectal thermometer won a 2005 Medical Device Excellence Award.
February 1st, 2006

Using a Rectal Thermometer - Advice for Business Leaders
For some reason, the Forbes magazine website is providing advice on how to take a baby's temperature by using a rectal thermometer. The report includes this under-statement: "New parents may cringe at the thought of taking a child's temperature through the rectum." It then goes on to provide some very sensible advice.
January 12th, 2006

This Rectal Thermometer Can't Make Swimming Any Easier
South African polar swimmer Lewis Pugh tells News24.com about his training regimen for "his toughest challenge yet" - a series of three long distance swims in Antarctica in water temperatures expected to be close to freezing.

For the past three days the scientific team has been collecting data from my swims. A South African company called Sy Gade has developed a recording device especially for the swim. It consists of a heart rate monitor, a rectal thermometer, a water thermometer, a stopwatch and an antenna. With the device my heart rate and core body temperature can be transmitted live to a computer.
December 29th, 2005