If we must learn to live with the virus as Lav Agarwal says, this device could help

Just yesterday, a written report quoting University of Minnesota scientists said the coronavirus will probably remain a menace for another 2 yrs! Day before yesterday, Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agrawal said we have to figure out how to live with the virus. If that is so, monitoring persons for early symptoms becomes crucial in our try to get life back to some semblance of normality.

Researchers at Northwestern University and Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in Chicago, USA, have developed a wearable wireless sensor that monitors cough, fever and respiratory activity to create insights, using machine learning, which will help manage the COVID-19 better.

The sensor, a flexible band-aid-like sticker manufactured from soft silicone material, is stuck on the neck at the lower throat, and functions by constantly measuring vibrations from coughing, chest wall movements, respiratory sounds and heartrate as well as body's temperature.

How it works

Arun Jayaraman, a study scientist at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, was quoted as saying on the Northwestern University website that his team is developing custom signal processing and machine-learning algorithms to teach the device on recognising coughs.

The vibration data of infected and non-infected people is fed right into a cloud. Machine learning software accumulates on the variations, which allows it to create signatures of vibrations both pertaining to COVID-19 symptoms, in addition to those indicative of normal breathing or chest sounds.

From these signatures, with the ability to match COVID-19 symptoms when it occurs in newer patients.

 “As the algorithm becomes smarter, our hope is that it will begin to discriminate among which coughs are COVID-like and which are from something more benign,” Jayaraman says.

What could be better

Currently, the sensor does not measure blood oxygenation levels, which is specially important as many COVID-19 patients usually do not show any respiratory distress but have low blood oxygenation, that could result in death.

Northwestern University’s John A Rogers says the team has earlier incorporated such a capability into clinical grade monitoring devices for intensive care units, and it can be replicated in the COVID-19 sensor.

Early intervention, no-contact diagnosis

About 25 affected individuals commenced using the devices fourteen days ago. Dr Mark Huang, a physician at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, who has worn the sensor himself says, “The sensor will offer clinicians and patients peace of mind since it monitors COVID-like symptoms, potentially prompting earlier intervention and treatment.” 

“This opens up new telemedicine strategies as we won’t need to generate patients for monitoring,” Jayaraman says.

Initially conceived for stroke patients

The device came into being therefore of earlier research by Rogers’ and Jayaraman’s labs that monitored swallowing and speech disorders in patients recovering from stroke. It had been tweaked to measure vibratory signatures of COVID-like symptoms.

The team is already producing a large number of devices per week.