SICKWEATHER COMES TO APPLE WATCH
Launches New SickScore™ Contagion Sensing Algorithm with Handwashing Timer
BALTIMORE, MD – April 17, 2015 – Sickweather, developer of the world’s first real-time map of illness, has announced the release of their Apple Watch app. The Sickweather Apple Watch app includes a new feature called SickScore, which provides the user a relative threat index of contagious illness in their immediate area. If the SickScore is high, users can take action by opening a handwashing timer built into the app, which runs for 20 seconds (as recommended by public health organizations) and through a timely notification takes advantage of the Taptic feedback to let the user know when the timer is up.
“We’re known as the Doppler radar for sickness,” says Graham Dodge, CEO of Sickweather. “Now with SickScore on Apple Watch, you have a virtual Geiger counter for sickness available on your wrist.”
SickScore adds an entirely new dimension to Sickweather’s service, and works by analyzing nearby contagious illnesses found in over 2 million reports gathered and processed each month from combined sources including: social media, the Sickweather community, and Sickweather partner apps. An algorithm then measures the nearby illnesses by their relative reproductive score along with other demographic factors, such as population density.
The built-in handwashing timer is the first of its kind for a wearable device and is significant as Sickweather’s first step in promoting a specific action to their users, to affect small behavioral change for the better.
“According to the CDC, the timely intervention of handwashing can save up to a million lives each year,” says Dodge. “Our Apple Watch app emphasizes the timely nature of that public health benefit by prompting that action with SickScore.”
Finally, the Sickweather Apple Watch app also extends Sickweather’s Sick Zone alerts from the Sickweather iPhone app to the Apple Watch, alerting users on their wrist when they enter known sick zones: areas where illnesses have been recently reported.
The Sickweather iPhone app & Apple Watch app are available for free in the App Store on iPhone or Apple Watch App Store:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sickweather/id741036885?mt=8
About Sickweather: Sickweather, Inc., a Baltimore-based company, provides real-time disease surveillance and forecasts for more than 23 different symptoms and illnesses. In 2012, they were recognized among “100 Brilliant Companies” by Entrepreneur Magazine and featured on the TODAY Show for successfully identifying the early start of the 2012 Flu Season 6 weeks before the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC). In 2014, the startup company graduated from the Sprint Mobile Health Accelerator powered by Techstars. For more information, please visit: http://www.sickweather.com