Scandu Scout is developed by a Belgian firm Scanadu, founded by Walter De Brouwer. In fact, his son was the victim of a serious head injury after a fall. Walter nearly spent a year in a hospital, assisting the nurses in the rehabilitation of his child. This inspired Walter to create a simple mobile device that would assess the same vital signs that were checked by the nurses every day. Being a big fan of Star Trek, he was tempted to build something similar to a “tricorder” (a small hand-held device able to fulfill three basic functions: detect, record and analyze). Hence, the Scanadu Scout project is born.
Simply place the Scanadu Scout on your forehead for 10 seconds and your vital stats are displayed on your smartphone. You will discover in real-time the temperature, heart rate and blood pressure, etc.
The app Scanadu will be available for Android and iOS smartphone. This scanner requires a micro USB adapter for recharging its battery in less than an hour and if you use it few times a day, you can even have battery autonomy of approximately a week. The prototype of this device must first be checked by FDA before its introduction into the vast US consumer market. Meanwhile, it can be used as a research tool to collect, store and display all the vital health information, but not for diagnosis as a real doctor.
The most recent data will be stored on your smartphone. Your data will only be accessible to you but you can also share the data with your physicians or even with your friends. This will ensure the full respect and privacy of your data.
We are very eager to test this tool even if we are aware that it can never replace the expertise of a doctor. If you had such gadget would you use it instead of a doctor?