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SALT LAKE CITY — This time of year it seems there are an abundance of germs and viruses just waiting to infect you and your family, lying in wait on nearly everything we touch. Some can bring on a slight cold or cough, while others carry the potential to put you out for weeks.
With the first signs your body is under duress, in an attempt to self-diagnose, you tend to ask yourself "what's going around?" Intermountain Healthcare has developed a tool that answers that very question. It's called Germ Watch.
Associate professor of pediatrics at Primary Children's Medical Center, Per Gesteland, says Germ Watch serves as "a radar, an early warning system, if you will, about what's out there. To know whether you should make that visit … because you don't want your potentially vulnerable baby to get exposed to things and wind up landing them in the clinic or in the hospital."
Information entered at Intermountain's clinics and medical facilities are instantaneously calculated and tracked. The data is designed to help you save time and money on your next doctor visit.
Gesteland says, "It can make them more efficient in getting to that diagnosis and having that discussion about what that diagnosis is, what it means, how to make yourself feel better, so that the patient leaves with the right care, safe care and more informed and empowered as a consumer of health care."
Within Intermountain Healthcare's Health Hub app you find Germ Watch, which displays a quick overview of exactly what's going around and where, specific symptoms and when to pay a visit to the doctor.
When it comes to stopping the spread of germs, it's simple! Wash your hands, cough into your sleeve and avoid going out if you feel you might be coming down with something. Gesteland's advice to parents, "If you're able to keep you kid home while they're still having a fever and having a cough and symptoms, then that might keep it from spreading around your school."
Encouraging hand-washing in the workplace and within the home can go a long ways in reducing the spread of germs.
Germ Watch is free for anyone to use. You can find it within Intermountain's Health Hub app or by going online. Jenniffer is a Special Projects Producer who heads up the Your Life Your Health, Zero Fatalities and High 5 initiatives. For questions, feedback or possible story ideas, please email jmichaelson@ksl.com.
