I have an exciting new device to talk to you about today, iPhone Lifers! It’s calledCue ($199) and it represents the ultimate in health monitoring devices. As a person who is into tracking my fitness with wearables like my Fitbit, the whole idea of this really turns my crank. It’s actually a little embarrassing how excited I am about this. I may or may not have squealed like a little girl when I heard about it.
This product, which launched on May 13, was created by Cue, a San Diego, CA based technology company that creates consumer health products. Cue is revolutionary because it tracks health information on the molecular level. Never before have consumers been able to track their health in this way. All you need to do is add a droplet of blood or saliva to a Sample Wand or swab your nose with it to provide a sample. Put the Sample Wand into the cartridge and then into the Cue. Health information is generated in minutes with Cue’s composite microfluidic system and biosensors that convert a biological sample into digital information that can then appear via Bluetooth on your iPhone.
Put in layman’s terms: it does some crazy, magical science things and it is amazing.
With this device, you can monitor the way your activity, food intake, and sleeping habits shape your day-to-day molecular health. Cue will then make researched-based suggestions for foods that will help improve your health and alerts you when you’ve had a change so that you can always feel your best. Cue checks five key health and lifestyle indicators: inflammation, vitamin D, fertility, influenza, and testosterone.
This is awesome, right? You want one, don’t you?
I know I do!
Recently, I had the opportunity to talk to Ayub Khattak and Clint Sever, co-founders and creators of this amazing product. They had some pretty interesting stuff to say.
iPhone Life: What’s the inspiration behind this product? When did you have your “ah-ha” moment?
Khattak and Sever: During the swine flu epidemic, the global healthcare system had huge lines in emergency rooms and doctor’s offices. Everyone was concerned about having the flu and getting treatment for it.
We thought, what if people could find out this information at home instead of going to the doctor’s? How can we execute that? That’s how we got the inspiration to create this device.
Then we realized that the fundamental technology could be applied to a broader range of things such as checking testosterone levels, vitamin D, inflammation, and fertility. We looked at fitness tracking so that people can track how what they eat and what they do for physical activity impacts their health.
iPL: Have you tested the accuracy of the devices?
Khattak and Sever: Yes. We take our system and run it side by side with gold standard systems along with the rapid tests that are used at doctor’s offices. In many cases, the accuracy of the Cue system is far beyond the rapid test, and as precise as gold standard medical methods.
iPL: What was your biggest challenge in developing this product and how did you overcome that?
Khattak and Sever: The main challenge was integrating technologies together. We had to figure out a way to rely on the basics taken from the lab experience and package it to create a very fast and simple user experience. As you can imagine, there are a myriad of challenges that come up when you are knitting technologies together.
Getting Cue into production has also been a challenge, but we are wrapping up that transition and will be making exciting announcements about that very soon.
iPL: What kinds of capabilities do you see in the future for Cue? What will it be able to do five years from now?
Khattak and Sever: We think that we’re going to expand the type of cartridges you’re going to see. Over time you’ll see various types of trackers in one cartridge and more data points per track.
iPL: What kind of response do you anticipate from the medical community?
Khattak and Sever: We talked to a lot of physicians and some are very supportive and see it as a fundamental need, others are somewhat resistant.
This is what happened when pregnancy tests first came out. Many doctors were opposed to them, but we see today that they are used widely. When new technologies like this come out, there’s always going to be push back from the medical community, but Cue is meant to help facilitate conversation with your doctor. You’re giving him or her one strong piece of information that can be of use.
Part of the reason that the smartphone is so interesting for us is that it brings in many different data streams. For example, your doctor can see that you took a certain number of steps in a day, pair it with what you ate and make determinations about your inflammation levels and steps to take to get them under control.
We expect that doctors will embrace Cue over time so they can co-monitor their patient’s health. We definitely want the medical community to embrace it and use it.
iPL: Will the cartridges ever be prescribed by doctors?
Khattak and Sever: We never want the cartridges to be a prescription. Cue is meant to be accessible to everyone so that the gatekeeper layer is removed. We also want people to track their health as often as they like. When you can monitor every day, you can really see the trends day to day and make active changes to your health.
iPL: Can you have one device per family or are there separate devices required per person?
Khattak and Sever: We designed it so that one Cue can run tests for multiple people in the home. Because the device is mobile, you can take it anywhere when it’s off the charging base. We suspect people are going to have a few of these per household. For example, if one person wants to go to the gym, they’ll take Cue with them to gather data during their workout, but if there’s someone staying home with a small child, they’ll want another one to use there as well. That said, one Cue is sufficient for a whole family.
iPL: How can I get Cue and what do they cost?
Khattak and Sever: Units will be available for preorder starting on May 13, 2014 for shipment to start in Spring 2015. After an initial promotional offering at $149, the price has gone up to $199. The retail price will be $300 after all limited quantities are gone.
The cartridges come in packs of 5 for $20 per pack. The flu cartridges come in packs of 3 for $30 each. Bulk packaging will be available over time. With your first order you get a set of cartridges for free that’s included with initial price. If you share our link with a friend, you get another cartridge. If people buy it, you get another cartridge as well.
Cue is coming in at the perfect time when there are a lot of people tracking their fitness with a huge array of wearables. There are many folks out there who are like me: they enjoy getting feedback and are excited to learn about how what they’re doing makes them feel. This device takes all of that to a whole new level and I am incredibly excited to have a way to monitor my own health as well as communicate regularly with my doctor. Cue could be a total game changer and I cannot wait to see what the future holds for it!