Innovative wireless wearable thermometer hits the market after two years of development

John Gannon was thinking how a wireless wearable patch might be able to monitor a sick child’s temperature much like perishable goods are monitored in the supply chain. The product also could have a feature to alert a mobile device when a reading surpasses a certain level.
That way, parents wouldn’t have to wake the child to take his or her temperature — and they know how tough it can be to get a baby back to sleep.
Gannon, president and CEO of Blue Spark Technologies, with his VP of marketing, Matt Ream, devised the world’s only wearable wireless thermometer suitable for all ages. TempTraq, the company’s flagship product, is powered by Blue Spark’s patented, flexible 24-hour battery, a technology licensed from Energizer. The Bluetooth product sends a signal up to 50 feet away.
While the idea sounds simple, like any innovation, the road to product launch required a lot of patience to navigate.
“It took us a good two years to develop it to where we were selling it in the market,” Gannon says.
It gained attention at the International Consumer Electronics Show in January and from national TV shows such as “Today” and “Good Morning America.”
Blue Spark Technologies was founded in 2003 in Westlake and has 20 employees.
Gannon acknowledges that for a small company developing an innovative device, limited resources can come into play. But it’s not an insurmountable challenge.
“In terms of skill sets, people have to wear a lot of hats in order to effectively get a product like this from the drawing board through regulatory and manufacturing and into the market,” he says. “That part of it was absolutely difficult.”
But on the other hand, there are positive aspects to a company the size of Blue Spark Technologies. Speed is a major one.
“We are able to move very quickly from preliminary design phases through engineering change processes,” Gannon says. “Because of our size, our decision-making process involves most of the stakeholders directly in the development process, which allows us to make decisions promptly and move quickly.”
One of the hats that Gannon must wear, not surprisingly for a CEO, is that of cheerleader.
“I have to; there were a lot of times through the engineering and design process that we had hurdles that we had to get through, and there had to be a vision that no matter what, we were going to get to the finish line.”
But on his team are many experienced positive-minded people whose self-starting nature makes the cheerleading role easier.
“That positive mindset during the difficulties of the development process is such that you don’t have to do much cheerleading to motivate highly positive and talented people,” Gannon says. “I think having the quality of the team that we have is one of the key reasons we were able to get TempTraq successfully to the market.”
How to reach: Blue Spark Technologies, www.bluesparktechnologies.com; TempTraq, www.temptraq.com or (440) 249-5400. TempTraq is available at retailers including Amazon.com, Costco.com, SharperImage.com, FSAstore.com, Diapers.com and CVS.com.