Colorado Partners with Kinsa to Strengthen State’s Early Detection and Response to COVID-19 Spread

Monday, June 8, 2020

DENVER – The State of Colorado today announced a partnership with Kinsa, a public health company working to help individuals and communities stop the spread of infectious illness and to help respond to the threat of COVID-19. The partnership will begin with a pilot program in three communities across the state, chosen based on demographic diversity, density, location, and illness spread. Through this pilot, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, in alignment with local public health agencies, the Office of eHealth Innovation, and Kinsa, will distribute 15,000 Kinsa smart thermometers to families of first responders and essential workers in Aurora, Montrose, and Edwards.

“Our top priority is ensuring the health and safety of Coloradans. This exciting project, along with the Colorado COVID-19 Symptom Tracker, will help us detect and respond to outbreaks earlier and more efficiently,” said Governor Jared Polis. “Technological innovations are an important part of Colorado’s efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19.”

Through this partnership, Colorado will significantly increase the use of Kinsa smart thermometers in the state to:

  • Develop a more detailed view of communities that are experiencing higher levels of illness in real-time through Kinsa’s aggregated population health insights; 

  • Deploy health resources, such as testing kits, first-responders, and personal protective equipment (PPE) exactly where they are most needed; 

  • Help guide Coloradans to the right services and care, to help them get better, faster; and, 

  • Direct community members to the Colorado COVID-19 symptom tracker to self-report symptoms and contribute to the state’s overall response.

“An early warning and early response system is essential infrastructure for any state looking to help identify hotspots of illness and react to outbreaks before they become epidemics, as we are facing with COVID-19,” says Inder Singh, founder and CEO of Kinsa. 

Kinsa created the first-ever connected thermometer to collect the information needed to track and predict infectious illness spread -- real-time, medically accurate, geographically-precise data on symptom onset, illness duration, severity and rate of transmission. The thermometer identifies symptoms at the first sign of illness. Users self-report their own personal data, which is then anonymized for public health use (if agreed to by the user). As a result, Kinsa’s population health insights offer the earliest indicators of the potential of spreading illness, and therefore, the earliest opportunity to respond.

Geographic illness trends can be viewed at www.healthweather.us and the Colorado COVID-19 Symptom Tracker.

For more information on Kinsa, please visit www.kinsahealth.com. State and local governments interested in distributing thermometers to their residents can contact sales@kinsahealth.com.  For more insight on Colorado’s statewide response, please visit https://covid19.colorado.gov/

 

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