Ochsner Offers New Orleans Area Schools Innovative Smart Technology to Help Stop the Spread of Illness in Classrooms

Local families will receive Kinsa Smart Thermometers to promote a healthier school year

NEW ORLEANS – With flu season approaching, several schools in the Greater New Orleans area expect to stay one step ahead of illness by offering local families access to a new innovative device, Kinsa Smart Thermometers -- an app-enabled smart thermometer that tracks fever, symptoms and influenza-like-illness activity in real time. Kinsa partnered with Ochsner Health to sponsor the FLUency Program, a community health initiative that invites families and staff at select schools to receive free Kinsa Smart Thermometers as a way to prevent illness and promote a healthier school year.  

"Sick days are disruptive to learning, challenging for parents who must find childcare, and costly to schools that are already struggling with strapped resources," explains Kinsa founder and CEO Inder Singh. "Because the thermometer is the first device you grab when your child falls ill, we turned it into a support system to keep your entire family healthy. We are thrilled to partner with Ochsner to offer schools throughout Greater New Orleans a tool to help keep more children healthy and in school."

“We have long commitment to building healthier communities and think it is important to introduce new innovative tools, like the Kinsa thermometer, to keep kids healthy and in school,” said Aimee Quirk, CEO, innovationOchsner. “By using innovation, we hope this initiative encourages steps towards preventative healthcare for parents, families and communities so they can respond sooner and receive access to timely care if illness strikes.”

With Ochsner-sponsored Kinsa Smart Thermometers, parents at participating schools can see anonymous, aggregated information on trending symptoms and illnesses and can speak directly to an Ochsner nurse through Ochsner On Call – a free 24/7 service that provides health education and advisory services if fever or symptoms are cause for concern.

“To provide our students with a quality educational experience and a nurturing environment, we want to use every tool at our disposal to stop the spread of illness in our schools and to keep our students in class learning,” said Dr. RaeNell Houston, Superintendent of Catholic Schools. “We are pleased to partner with Ochsner to offer this free program at Archdiocese schools that are interested in participating.”

Ochsner is partnering with 23 schools to bring this program to the Greater New Orleans area this fall:

• Ascension of Our Lord School
• Atonement Lutheran School
• Christ the King School
• Good Shepherd Elementary School
• Harold Keller Elementary School
• Holy Rosary School
• John Curtis Christian School
• Kenner Discovery Health Sciences Academy
• Our Lady of Divine Providence School
• Our Lady of Perpetual Help School – Belle Chasse
• Our Lady of Prompt Succor School
• Resurrection of Our Lord School
• St. Anthony School
• St. Benilde School
• St. Cletus School
• St. Christopher School
• St. Francis Xavier School
• St. Joan of Arc Catholic School
• St. Leo the Great School
• St. Rita School
• St. Rosalie Elementary School
• St. Stephen School
• Stuart Hall School for Boys

About Kinsa

Kinsa is on a mission to detect illness in real-time, helping individuals and communities respond before it spreads. To achieve this, we’ve turned the first device you grab when sickness strikes - the thermometer - into a support system to help keep families healthy. From the first sign of illness through recovery and beyond, Kinsa answers your most pressing question - what to do next. Kinsa has won numerous awards, including the Grand Prize in Medical Innovation by the Cleveland Clinic, and is available in more than 7,000 retail locations in the US and Canada. www.kinsahealth.com.

About Ochsner Health System

Ochsner Health is Louisiana’s largest non-profit, academic, healthcare system. Driven by a mission to Serve, Heal, Lead, Educate and Innovate, coordinated clinical and hospital patient care is provided across the region by Ochsner's 40 owned, managed and affiliated hospitals and specialty hospitals, and more than 200 health centers and urgent care centers. Ochsner is the only Louisiana hospital recognized by U.S. News & World Report as a “Best Hospital” across three specialty categories caring for patients from all 50 states and more than 60 countries worldwide each year. Ochsner employs nearly 25,000 employees and over 4,500 employed and affiliated physicians in over 90 medical specialties and subspecialties, and conducts more than 700 clinical research studies. Ochsner Health is proud to be a tobacco-free environment. For more information, please visit ochsner.org and follow us on Twitter and Facebook.