This week’s Smart Health roundup features a high-tech fertility tracking device, how unused fitness trackers have been given new homes and an app that helps depressed people manage moods.

YONO

YONO ear thermometer in case

Women will soon have help from a new device set to make fertility monitoring easier. With just over a week on Kickstarter, YONO has already surpassed its $30,000 funding goal, and the funds just keep on coming.

But what is YONO? It is an in-ear wearable thermometer that captures real core body temperature, instead of skin temperature, to provide reliable Basal Body Temperature (BBT) data, useful for women who are trying to conceive (or not conceive). The Basal Body Temperature is the lowest body temperature that occurs from 2-6 a.m. during sleep and is one of the best indications in determining when a woman is fertile and ready to conceive.

To use YONO, just place the device in the ear before sleep, and take it off when it’s time to wake up. YONO will do all the data measuring, recording, transmission, and charting once it is placed back into the base station, which only needs to be charged once a week. All information gathered can be easily seen on your iOS or Android app. The app helps women manage their overall health and track ovulation symptoms and with data analytics, YONO will be more predictive with each monthly cycle. The base station is designed to be portable, so it will be easy to store and take with you even when you go on a trip.

You can still help fund YONO on Kickstarter; expect to get your device by November 2015.

Forgotten fitness trackers get new homes

Photo by USCPSC (photopin)

Last year, Endeavour Partners, LLC revealed the dirty little secret of wearable trackers — they’re often forgotten after just a few months of use. Why? Because of the need to recharge devices every day.

The report may have dampened the reputation of fitness trackers, but Lisa Gualtieri, an assistant professor of Public Health and Community Medicine at Tufts University, saw this as an opportunity. Gualtieri launched RecycleHealth, which aims to give these forgotten trackers a new home by donating them to  the Montachusett YMCA in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. The YMCA in Fitchburg will be holding a weight-loss challenge starting in the fall and randomly selected participants will be given fitness trackers for free as long as they agree to complete a survey each month that would help the researchers better understand how the device is used by the low-income population and if the fitness tracker helped in increasing or sustaining their level of activity.

RecycleHealth has received fitness trackers, mostly Fitbits, by mail and from donation boxes placed in the campus, and Gualtieri has met with Withings SA and Fitbit, Inc. for possible donations to help the cause and study.

MoodTrek app helps depressed people manage mood

Photo by Foundry (Pixabay)

Millions of adult Americans suffer from depression but only see psychiatrists every two or three months, which makes it difficult to assess how they are faring as they don’t usually remember how their moods have changed over time. To help patients and mental health doctors, a team from the University of Missouri, Missouri University of Science and Technology and the Tiger Institute for Health Innovation developed MoodTrek, an app that allows users to log their moods and symptoms and allow them to share that data to their psychiatrists.

MoodTrek can be linked to a Fitbit tracker, so sleep and exercise can be integrated to their mood data because sleep and exercise levels play a role in affecting a person’s mood. Users rate their mood by selecting the appropriate “smiley face” icon that matches their current feelings. A person can log multiple entries in a day.

MoodTrek is available for Android with plans of launching an iOS app in the future.

feature image by 83. Recycle. Please. via photopin (license)