(CBS4) – Dr. Matthew Salzberg was doing some errands during the holidays a few hours after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.
“Just a little painful arm, but nothing bigger than us makes you an ordinary cow against the flu,” he told CBS4.
Dr. Salzberg frequently helps patients with COVID as the medical director of the Department of Emergency Medicine at UCHealth Hospital in Aurora. Now he is helping in a different way, but he is wearing a device to monitor his reactions after vaccination.
“It’s a pretty cool technology,” he explained as he unveiled a “BioButton” produced by a Gold-based company, Biointellisense.
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It communicates via Bluetooth with its smartphone and an application tells it how things are going, plus the company monitors it.
“You will receive a report from the company every two hours that tells you what they have done vital in the last few hours.”
The device, which is attached to the chest and chest of Dr. Richard Zane, chief innovation officer at UCHealth and chief of emergency services at UCHealth Hospital, measures and transmits data on heart rate, temperature, respiratory rate and a certain degree of movement.
“There are delayed reactions that we don’t know about,” said Dr. Zane. “It is a new vaccine and it seems extremely safe based on clinical trial data … we want to pay special attention to that population of elderly and fragile patients. So what we’re looking for in that patient population is any intent to damage. So any sensitivity to fever occurs. Any increase in respiratory rate, any increase in sense of impulse and what that means along with a combination of movement. “
The devices could detect not only small signs of vaccine complications, but also the virus infection.
A total of 100 people receive the devices along with their photos. I take them the day before each of the two photos, then wear them a week later.
What we can also do is use an algorithm to be able to tell the difference between what could be a side effect of the vaccine and what could be an active COVID infection.
“We will be able to monitor and follow you and make sure you are okay with this,” Dr. Salzberg explained. “There are people monitoring this remotely, so these apps can alert you and contact you.”
This would be in the case of dangerous-looking data. People could be called for medical care or possibly even an ambulance sent.
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Dr. Salzberg checked the data a few hours after the shooting.
“In the first four hours after my shooting, no change,” he said.
“It simply came to our notice then. It’s too early, “said Dr. Zane.
But they will collect data and use it to better treat the virus and warn of any reactions to the vaccine.
It could develop complications of the vaccine that could be interpreted as COVID and it could develop COVID that could be interpreted as complications of the vaccine and we can tell the difference between the two.
Devices are indeed a future in the field of health. Hospitals and other health care facilities can use them to track people with a variety of illnesses.
“It simply came to our notice then. We think of patients with difficult-to-control diabetes, heart failure, heart disease, hypertension, kidney disease, ”said Dr. Zane.
Patients released from the hospital with COVID sometimes need to return as symptoms decrease and increase. Putting bio buttons or similar devices on them can help hospitals intervene when they have problems.
Dr. Zane also sees another use.
“We have in mind that people in qualified healthcare institutions will always wear such a device, especially after they have been vaccinated.”