I don't know how the "scan tangan" trend started in Malaysia, but there are more and more customers coming in and demand that we scan their hands for temperature instead of their foreheads.
Some even get really mad when we insist that we need to scan their foreheads.
Now, we DO have a very valid reason for insisting that we scan their foreheads though. Refer to the body temperature picture below.
Source: Matthew David White
The temperature on our hands and the temperature of our forehead can be very different depending on ambient temperature. The difference can be as big as 6 degrees Celcius (34°C vs 28°C).
Now, if a person was having a fever, and we scanned his hand, would we have picked it up? Most definitely not. And this defeats the whole purpose of us trying to screen patients am I right?
So just to make things SUPER CLEAR, "Hands cold...forehead warmer. CANNOT SCAN YOUR HAND with a forehead thermometer!". Tak dapat detect fever!
Before I end this post, some must also be wondering:
"Why is our forehead temperature usually 34°C?"
"Every time I scan, the thermometer shows 36.5-37°C right?"
Well, our forehead thermometers DO NOT actually display the actual temperature when it scans our foreheads. Instead, it gives you the "translated" equivalent temperature of our oral temperatures (The temperature inside our mouths). It uses what we call an algorithm to "translate" forehead temperatures into more understandable oral temperatures so that we can easily know when we have fever. 37 normal, 38 high fever...that's what we're used to right?
Hopefully when any of your friends request to "scan tangan", please help us explain this to them.
P/S: There is also a rumour going on about Infrared light from thermometers "harming" our brains. Thing is, thermometers do not emit or "shoot out" any rays. What these thermometers do is, capture the amount of infrared light emitted from our foreheads...very much like a camera.
"But there is a blue or green light shining out! I see it on my forehead!"
Well that “light” you see is just a guiding led light to let us know where to point it. It’s not a laser, not infrared, not microwave. Just a normal led light like the light from your screen. So rest assured, no harmful rays are being shot into your brains. And if you “feel” something, just notice that no matter what anybody points to your forehead, u get the same feeling especially if you are nervous.