Meet the DynoSense, a personal ‘thermometer on steroids’

SAN FRANCISCO — At first glance, it looks like a funny white plastic ball with a thermometer tip strapped to it. But the DynoSense device is really more like a thermometer on steroids.

Announcing its launch today, the DynoSense device is a clinical and consumer-grade scanner that can track 33 body metrics in 60 seconds, such as temperature and hearth rate. It also gives people and their medical care providers valuable information about their health.

The DynoSense is just as easy to use as a digital thermometer: Place it in your mouth, then hold it in place for 60 seconds while the device scans your vitals and the app serves up your metrics, which include a score and a grade. The score, a number between 0 and 100, tells you how how healthy the DynoSense thinks you are. The grade, a letter from A to F, tells you how your vitals and health rate fall within the context of your demographic group, as well as your environment. (For example, air quality can have an effect on your body, so the device takes that into an account.)

“The average user only cares about one or two things,” said DynoSense founder and chief executive Saeed Azimi in an interview with VentureBeat. Even though the device tracks all these metrics, the grade and score nicely boil them down for the average Joe simply looking for a quick checkup. Moreover, some users might be focused on a particular metric or two because of their particular health issues and not care as much about the others.

Eventually, the company plans for the device to track up to 80 different metrics.

If you are like me, you’ve naturally already thought of the Scanadu Scout, also a Tricorder-like device that promises to help you quickly scan your vitals by holding the small device to your temple. So how is the DynoSense different or better?

It comes down to the approaches the two devices take. Because the DynoSense measures your vitals orally, unlike the Scout, it can not only capture many more metrics, but also, according to Azimi, is more accurate.

DynoSense will mainly focus on a business-to-business approach, partnering with clinics, hospitals, and the like, although Azimi said that the device will also be made available for consumer purchase.

Keeping both sales approaches open is a wise move for the company. While medical are providers can certainly benefit from using the device on-site when examining patients, certain groups of people, such as patients with chronic diseases or who are elderly, need to be more aware in shifts of heart rate or blood pressure. The DynoSense will make it easier for them to track and manage their health.

The DynoSense will of course be connected to a mobile app that will display all its metrics, and the dashboard can be customized. Moreover, the device, whose base supports Wi-Fi and 3G, is HIPAA compliant and can transmit these numbers to a doctor. It will also be FDA compliant, and the company has already completed a series of clinical trials with a few clinics in the U.S. In one of those trials, 12 patients used the DynoSense for a whole week, and the device successfully detected and noted cases of arrhythmia and premature ventricular contractions (PVC).

DynoSense is currently closing talks to run a study with a clinic in China and expects to make test units available for interested organizations in about six months.

The company is opening up pre-orders for its device, priced at $199, and expects to ship in late summer 2015.

DynoSense previously raised about $700,000 in seed funding, mostly from Azimi. The company is in the process of raising its first round of funding and seeks about $6 million.