Researchers eye tech wearables as virus early warning system
07 June, 2020
Can your Fitbit or Apple Watch discover a coronavirus infection prior to the onset of symptoms?
Researchers are increasingly looking at the unit and other such wearables just as one early warning system for the deadly virus.
Last month, scientists at the West Virginia University Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute said that they had created a digital platform that can identify COVID-19 symptoms up to three days before they arrive using the Oura ring, a wearable fitness and activity tracker.
An app produced by the researchers uses artificial intelligence to forecast the onset of COVID-19 related symptoms such as for example fever, coughing, breathing difficulties and fatigue, with over 90 percent accuracy, based on the university.
The researchers said the machine could offer clues of infection in persons not yet showing symptoms -- helping address among the problems in detection and containment of the deadly outbreak.
Separately, Scripps Research Institute has enrolled more than 30,000 people -- and aims for a lot more -- in a similar study aiming to use wearables to find "presymptomatic" and asymptomatic persons with COVID-19.
Scripps researchers had already previously demonstrated the worthiness of wearables in predicting influenza in a study published in January in the British journal The Lancet.
Early indications recommend the devices "have the potential to recognize people who are presymptomatic but nonetheless infectious," said Jennifer Radin, a Scripps epidemiologist leading the study.
Volunteers being sought
Radin told an online conference discussing the study that wearables are detecting "subtle changes that indicate you are coming down with a viral illness" prior to the onset of symptoms.
Scripps researchers say they desire to show that wearables data may be more reliable than temperature checks.
"Forty percent of individuals who drop with COVID don't have a fever," Radin said. "This is something that can be utilised to screen persons that's much better than a temperature check."
Resting heart rate, for instance, is an effective indicator because it is generally consistent before an infection, and will be accurately measured by most wearables.
"We see these changes (in heartrate) four days before someone starts to build up a fever," Radin said.
Eric Topol, director of the Scripps institute, said the idea of using wearables is promising because "over 100 million Americans have a good watch or fitness band" which provides key data for researchers, but that getting results "is contingent on getting good sized quantities" to opt in to the studies.
California health tech startup Evidation meanwhile has begun a project to create an early on warning algorithm from wearables worn by 300 persons at risky of contracting coronavirus, with funding from the government and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Luca Foschini, Evidation's co-founder and chief data scientist, said the study aims "to more effectively identify when and where persons may contract COVID-19, and can potentially permit real-time interventions to limit spread and monitor outcomes."
A similar research effort is underway in Germany.
From recreation to medicine
The most recent research highlights how some wearable devices -- developed at first for fitness and recreation uses -- could be adapted for important medical research.
Apple has begun studies how its smartwatch can find heart disease. And Fitbit has been dealing with some 500 different projects for research on cancer, diabetes, respiratory and other medical issues.
Scientists say wearables can provide data on body's temperature, heart and respiratory rates, sleep and activity patterns and other indicators which can be utilized as diagnostic tools.
Researchers from Stanford University announced plans in April to take part in research on wearables, in collaboration with Scripps, for COVID-19 and other diseases.
"Smartwatches and other wearables make many, many measurements per day -- at least 250,000, which is why is them such powerful monitoring devices," said Michael Snyder, chair of genetics at Stanford School of Medicine.
Snyder said these devices may alert users when their heart rate, skin temperature or various other part of their physiology signals of infection or another ailment.
"You might wonder, 'Are these sniffles allergies, or am I getting sick?' These algorithms may help people determine if indeed they should stay home in case their body is overcoming contamination," Snyder said.
Source: www.thejakartapost.com
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