uChek Brings Urinalysis Home

Most doctor’s appointments tend to involve some kind of urine sample, at least it seems like it. Even though I’m sure no one really looks forward to this, urine tests can reveal a lot of information about a person’s health, and what may be causing problems. uChek, a product from Biosense Technologies, is helping make it possible for people to do this test at home.

uChek allows a person to use their phone to diagnose an at-home urine test. Basically, a person can purchase a uChek kit, which has a uChek color mat and sample urine dipsticks. The dipstick changes color according to the concentration of different analytes in urine. You then put the dipstick on the color mat, and then compare this to the uChek app. This will help to determine if there is anything amiss. It is compatible with the five most commonly used urine dipsticks, which can be purchased at pharmacies. Although it is recommended to use the uChek kit, someone can purchase the dipsticks are a pharmacy, and then compare it to the app manually. If the app isn’t used, accuracy may be lower because it takes longer to manually check.

When used correctly, uChek has 95 percent accuracy at identifying the concentration of up to 10 analytes — glucose, protein, ketones, urobilinogen, bilirubin, specific gravity, blood, pH, leukocytes, and nitrites. Being able to see this information can help a person who suspects they have certain illnesses, such as diabetes or a UTI, keep track of their symptoms. The app will create a graph with different readings over time.

The website makes sure to state that this is not a medical device, and not meant to diagnose illnesses and diseases. It is merely for informational reasons. I think this is pretty awesome. For example, I was thinking it could helpful for someone who is at risk for pre-eclampsia. Since that is often diagnosed through a urine sample, if someone wants to monitor their urine at home, they might be able to catch it early, and get treatment faster as well.

uChek isn’t available yet for purchase, or to be downloaded, but it will be soon. If this is something you are interested in, be sure to go enter your information on the site, so they can send you updates as they happen.

About the author

Katie Clark

Katie Clark is originally from Colorado and currently lives in Utah with her husband and son. She writes primarily for Smart Phone Health Care, but contributes to several Health Care Scene blogs, including EMR Thoughts, EMR and EHR, and EMR and HIPAA. She enjoys learning about Health IT and mHealth, and finding ways to improve her own health along the way.

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