Medical startup Scanadu informed customers today it will no longer support its Scout device starting May 15, 2017.
The reason? Though Scanadu has been working with the Food and Drug Administration to get full approval for this and other devices, it seems Scout didn’t make the cut.
Scanadu used Scout, which could detect vitals such as temperature and upload that information to a smartphone, as a preliminary device for medical research. The device could also send collected information from an app to your doctor.
While there’s no word yet from the FDA as to why it ordered Scanadu to shut down support for Scout, it could be because of the highly sensitive nature of the information passed over cellphones.
Scanadu came out of the X Prize Foundation’s Qualcomm Tricorder competition, but soon broke an Indiegogo record, raising more than $1.6 million in less than a month for the Scout, a medical device that could check for heart rate, blood pressure and body temperature.
The letter sent to Scout supporters talks about the startup’s commitment to continue bringing innovative technologies to consumers.
“Thank you for your dedication to Scanadu Scout over the past years. We have learned a lot from your usage data and feedback. The success of this project wouldn’t have been possible without you,” the letter reads.
But it is the collection of that data without anything in return that has sparked a lot of anger in those who’ve bought and supported the use of Scout.
Another user, long time supporter Dr. David Fraser wrote TechCrunch in an email, “They basically took our money, took our data, took the learnings from the process and dumped the very backers who got them started. No recompense, no future trade-up voucher, nada!”
We’ve reached out to Scanadu for comment and are waiting to hear back.
