Researchers eye tech wearables as virus early warning system
Is your Fitbit or Apple Watch detect a coronavirus infection before symptoms start?
Investigators are increasingly looking at these devices and other items worn as an early warning system for a deadly virus.
Last month, scientists at the West Virginia University Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute said they had created a digital platform that could detect COVID-19 symptoms up to three days before they could even use the Oura ring, the area of fitness and performance.
Researchers eye tech wearables as virus early warning system
The app developed by researchers uses artificial intelligence to predict the onset of COVID-19-related symptoms such as fever, cough, difficulty in breathing and fatigue, with 90 percent accuracy, according to the university.
Investigators say the program could provide indications of human infection that have not yet shown any signs – helping to address one of the problems encountered and the outbreak of this deadly outbreak.
Separately, the DRMps Research Institute has enrolled more than 30,000 people – and aims for more – in a similar study aimed at using wearables to find “preymptomatic” and asymptomatic people with COVID-19.
Scriptps investigators had already pointed out the importance of being worn in predicting the flu in a study published in January in the British magazine The Lancet.
Early indications suggest that the devices “can identify people who are presymptomatic but are still infected,” said Jennifer Radin, the pediatric pathologist leading the study.
Looking for volunteers
Radin told an online conference that discussed the findings that wearables are experiencing “subtle changes that indicate a decline in viral load” before symptoms start.
Scriptps investigators say they hope to show that wearable data can be more reliable than temperature checks.
“40% of people who come with COVID do not have the flu,” Radin said. “This is something that can be used to analyze people better than a temperature check.”
Heart rate, for example, is a good indicator because it is often variable before infection, and can be accurately measured by many flavors.
“We see these changes (in a heartbeat) four days before someone starts having the flu,” Radin said.
Eric Topol, director of the Microsoft Center, said the idea of using wearables is promising because “more than 100 million Americans have smart watch or banditness” that can provide valuable information for researchers, but that getting good results “depends on getting big numbers” to choose academically.
Evidation health startup California is currently embarking on a project to produce the first warning algorithm from clothing worn by 300 high-risk coronavirus contractors, with funding from the US government and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Luca Foschini, co-founder of Evidation and a senior data scientist, said the study aims to “find out exactly when people can get COVID-19 contracts, and enable them to intervene in real time to reduce the scope of the distribution and to look at the consequences.”
A similar research effort is underway in Germany.
From entertainment to medicine
Recent studies highlight how some portable devices – developed initially for physical and recreational purposes – can be transformed into important health research.
Apple has started studies on how its smartwatch can detect heart problems. And Fitbit has been working with 500 different projects in research on cancer, diabetes, respiratory, and other health issues.
Scientists say the material may provide information on body temperature, heart and breathing, sleep and function patterns and other indicators that can be used as diagnostic tools.
Researchers at Stanford University announced plans in April to participate in research on clothing items, in partnership with Scripps, COVID-19 and other diseases.
“Smartwatches and other wearables make a lot of measurements per day – at least 250,000, which is what keeps them going.
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