Biometrics tends to summon visions of retina scanners and other high-tech applications you’d expect to find in a Mission Impossible movie. But mobile health company Biometrac has constructed a sophisticated mobile health software platform around a thumbprint scanner. It’s using the technology to track vaccine doses, to monitor the progression of diseases such as tuberculosis in developing countries and to function as a low-tech medical record. Long term, it sees pharma companies using the platform for clinical trials.
“No one is using biometrics in low-resource settings,” said Trisha Finnegan, Biometrac managing director. “We are developing something fairly low cost so that it’s scalable and attainable” for developing countries. “The whole goal is individualized tracking for healthcare validation.”
Among its primary customers are NGOs and university researchers. The Biometrac technology is used to support lab work studying disease progression and migration, such as for AIDS. It is also helpful for people participating in clinical studies to manage their medications. The goal is to improve continuity and accuracy and reduce the mess of keeping paper records.
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For example, if a patient in a developing country has HIV and he or she relocates, clinics can use the platform to see the last time he or she was checked out by medical staff.
One of the strengths of the technology is that it doesn’t rely on an Internet connection, which can be patchy in most of the countries where its technology is being used.
VaxTrac is a nonprofit that uses Biometrac’s platform to track child immunization schedules. The idea is to avoid waste and to ensure children get a full vaccine regimen.
