Healthy.io Avails At-Home, Smartphone-Based Urinalysis Analyzer

The Dip UTI test kits will reduce U.K.’s unclear pharmacies women-visits

Healthy.io, the global leader in turning the smartphone camera into a clinical-grade medical device signed an agreement with Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. to place Healthy.io’s Dip UTI test kits in hundreds of Boots pharmacies throughout the United Kingdom (U.K.). The National Rollout, a leading logistics supplier, makes Healthy.io’s test kit available to the millions of women in the U.K. who suffer from urinary tract infections (UTIs) or cystitis. The U.K. accounts for over 10 million visits per year in the U.K. After witnessing the unnecessary rush for routine tests in clinics, Healthy.io also partnership with The National Health Service (NHS) in England to conduct a pilot study across 38 pharmacies in order to explore the reason behind how a home-based UTI testing kit is able to reduce the need for clinician visits, which account for over 10 million visits per year in the U.K. Yonatan Adiri, founder and CEO of Healthy.io, said, “This partnership, and others like it in the future, will turn community pharmacies into a point of care and, by doing so, expand access to clinical-grade tests while improving health outcomes and lowering costs.”

A healthy diagnosis saves time and money

As UTIs are the most common bacterial infections in humans, Healthy.io estimates one in three women will have gone by the time they are 24. There are 8 million physician visits and two million ER visits in the U.S. each year to diagnose UTIs. Healthy.io’s Dip UTI test kits provide diagnostics as accurate as standard lab-based urinalysis analyzer and readily-available at-home can significantly reduce the physician visits. •    Dip UTI test kits are the only smartphone-based urinalysis approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European regulators as equivalent as well as trustworthy to lab-based testing. •    Women in the U.K. now can purchase Healthy.io’s Dip UTI test at a Boots pharmacy, do the test, and then return to a Boots pharmacy and have their results reviewed by a certified pharmacist. •    Healthy.io builds its products around the established urinalysis dipstick, a tried and tested medical tool. The dipstick is able to measure 10 parameters, monitoring a range of infections, chronic illnesses, and pregnancy-related complications. •    Many different smartphone cameras and infinite lighting conditions make accurate dipstick reading highly challenging. However, the computer vision algorithms and unique calibration method make accurate testing as easy as taking a selfie. •    After the diagnosis result, pharmacists can provide a course of antibiotics to treat the detected infection. This will reduce the need to schedule, wait for, and visit a clinic, while also allowing women to complete the test on their own schedule from their home. •    The results have seen in the U.K. demonstrate the potential for Healthy.io’s urinalysis products to improve the quality of care, help patients, and reduce costs in the United States. According to the study conducted by American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology (AJOG), ‘Healthy.io’s test was feasible, acceptable, and largely preferred by pregnant women receiving prenatal care. Results showed that 87 percent of participants attempted the test, with 96 percent of those women successfully completing the test. Two-thirds of the women said they preferred at-home self-testing as compared to just 10 percent who preferred conventional testing at a medical clinic.’