Smart watches and other wearable devices that continuously measure users’ heart rate, skin temperature, and other physiological markers can help detect coronavirus infections a few days before an individual is diagnosed.
Devices such as Apple Watch, Garmin and Fitbit watches can predict if a person is positive for COVID-19 even before it is symptomatic or the virus is detectable by tests, according to studies by leading medical and academic institutions, including Mount Sinai Health System in New York and the University Stanford in California. Experts say wearable technology could play a vital role in stopping the pandemic and other communicable diseases.
The subtle heartbeat changes
Researchers at Mount Sinai have found that the Apple Watch can detect subtle changes in an individual’s heartbeat, which can signal that a person has coronavirus, up to seven days before they feel sick or detect the infection through tests.
“Our goal was to use tools to identify infections at the time of infection or before people knew they were sick,” said Rob Hirten, an assistant professor of medicine at Mount Sinai’s Icahn School of Medicine and author of Warrior. Watch the study.
Specifically, the study looked at a metric called heart rate variability – the variation over time between each heartbeat – which is also a measure of how well a person’s immune system is working.
“We already knew that markers of heat rate variability change as inflammation develops in the body, and Covid is an incredibly inflammatory event,” Hirten told CBS MoneyWatch. “It allows us to predict that people are infected before they know it.”
The study found that people with COVID-19 had less heart rate variability or, in other words, less variation in heart rate, as opposed to people with COVID-negative.
The high variability of the heart rate does not reflect an increased heart rate: it indicates that a person’s nervous system is active, adaptable and more resistant to stress.
Investigators tracked nearly 300 medical workers in Mount Sinai who wore Apple watches from April 29 to September 29.
Apple did not participate in or fund the study, but is aware of the capabilities of its watches. Tim Cook in September supported the role of the clock in the study of Mount Sinai.
Data collected by smartwatches could be essential to help tame the virus, as more than half of coronavirus cases are spread by asymptomatic carriers, according to a model from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published last week.
“Right now, we rely on people who say they’re sick and not feeling well, but wearing an Apple Watch doesn’t require any active user input and can identify people who might be asymptomatic. It’s a way to better control. infectious diseases, “said Hirten.
Early warning
A separate study from Stanford, in which participants wore a variety of activity trackers from Garmin, Fitbit, Apple and other manufacturers, found that 81% of participants with a positive coronavirus experienced changes in their resting heart rate by up to nine. days and a half before the onset of symptoms. The study reported that an extremely high heart rate indicated the onset of symptoms.
The researchers used smartwatch data to identify nearly two-thirds of COVID-19 cases four to seven days before people had symptoms, according to the study, published in Nature Biomedical Engineering in November. The study looked at data from 32 people who tested positive for the virus in a group of more than 5,000 participants.
The team also created an alarm system that warns wearers that their heart rate has been increased for a sustained period of time.
“We set the alarm with a certain sensitivity so that it would sound every two months or so,” said Stanford University professor Michael Snyder, who led the study. “Ordinary fluctuations will not trigger the alarm – only significant and sustained changes will trigger.”
“It’s a big deal because it warns people not to go out and meet people,” he added. When Snyder’s alarm went off recently, for example, he canceled a personal meeting in case it could be infectious.
Such technology could also help offset some of the shortcomings of coronavirus testing, Snyder said. “The problem is that you can’t do it to people all the time, while these devices measure you 24/7. The smartwatch returns your data immediately, in real time, while if you’re lucky, you’ll get it back in a few days. “
Manufacturers of wearable devices are also looking at how the technology could be used to fight the virus. Oura Health, which makes a smart ring that tracks health data, helped fund a study by the University of California at San Diego and the University of California at San Francisco that found the device can detect subtle symptoms, such as the onset. of fever, which may indicate COVID-19.
Whoop, a sleep tracker, has partnered with the University of Central Queensland in Australia to create a peer-reviewed paper indicating that its technology can help predict coronavirus infections based on users’ respiratory rate deviations. during night sleep. Healthy people have experienced reduced respiratory rate variability, while deviations suggest compromising respiratory tract health.
“It simply came to our notice then that markers of physiological function collected from devices allow us to identify these conditions and diseases in a non-invasive way, “Hirten said.” They all have limitations, but they complement each other. “