Maker of the FDA-approved smart thermometer Kinsa is launching Kinsa Groups service that works with the company’s iOS and Android apps.

The new feature is currently available for public schools across the US, enabling parents to monitor the overall health at their child’s school to “better track, treat, and stop the spread of illness at the earliest signs of symptoms.”

With Kinsa Groups, parents are able to share symptoms and temperature either with the Kinsa Smart Thermometer or by manually entering information into the app. The information is anonymously populated into the group to create a “health report card,” which includes how many children at the school are sick and what symptoms are going around. With this information, parents can make informed decisions regarding when to visit the doctor, while doctors can make quicker diagnosis.

Additionally, the included in-group messaging capability allows users to post messages, share a doctor’s diagnosis or pose a health-related question. All messages and data are anonymized unless the user elects to provide their name.

Parents are able to share symptoms and temperature either with the Kinsa Smart Thermometer or by manually entering information into the app.Future updates to Groups will allow users to create their own custom groups, for example one for their neighborhood, close friends, or an office.

“In today’s hyper-connected society, there is no effective way to track symptoms and illness at the local level – Kinsa aims to change that,” explains Kinsa Founder and CEO Inder Singh. “Kinsa’s Groups feature will help parents know ‘what’s going around’ their community so they can get their children better faster or avoid getting sick in the first place.”

The launch of the Groups feature brings Kinsa another step closer to its mission: to create the “health weather,” a real-time understanding of the local health situation, to help communities better track, treat, and stop the spread of illness. A similar service is already offered by Sickweather.