In the early days of the pandemic, dozens of researchers launched studies to see if laptops of all kinds could identifies covid-19 potential before the onset of symptoms. In one such study, researchers on Mount Sinai found that the Apple Watch was able to detect the appearance of covid-19 up to seven days before current testing methods.
study, which was published in Journal of Medical Internet Research, studied the impact of covid-19 on several hundred health workers at the Mount Sinai health system between April and September last year. All participants wore an Apple Watch and responded to daily symptom surveys through an app. The researchers then observed changes in participants’ heart rate variability (HRV), which measures changes in heart rate and is an indicator of the autonomic nervous system.
The interesting result of this special study is that, first, subtle changes in a person’s HRV helped researchers identify and predict whether that person could be infected with or show symptoms of covid-19 by one week. before ever being tested with a nasal swab. This is great because covid-19 can be contagious before any symptoms appear. So far, one week is one of the longest periods of time I’ve seen reported. Another aspect was that HRV models returned to normal 7-14 days after diagnosis, to the point where they were not statistically different from uninfected participants.
“This technology allows us not only to track and predict health outcomes, but also to intervene in a timely and remote manner, which is essential during a pandemic that requires people to stay out,” said the co-author. study, Zahi Fayad, PhD in a Press release.
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This is consistent with the idea that laptops could be a useful tool in testing triage, as well as the potential identification of pre-symptomatic disease. They have a few other researchers identified HRV as a potential metric for infection detection, while others also indicated respiratory rate and body temperature as significant potentials. And while studies are currently underway with Apple Watch, Fitbits and Garmin devices, among others, the laptop that got the most press in terms of covid-19 remains Oura Ring. The Oura ring was wearable of choice for NBA in its reopening efforts, and something promising preliminary research found that it could detect covid-19 for up to three days before symptoms appear with 90% accuracy. That being said, we must remember that, regardless of the titles you have read, none of the portable devices mentioned above are able to officially diagnose covid-19. Also, just because this study focused on the Apple Watch, doesn’t necessarily mean that other portable items wouldn’t be capable of the same thing.
It has also been about a year since many of these studies were launched, and we will probably see some more findings published in the coming weeks and months. However, regardless of the findings that emerge, consumers may not see “early detection” features on their personal portable devices. this pandemic. This would require some degree of FDA approval, which is usually a slow process. Even so, it is also possible that these findings will help doctors better manage future outbreaks of the flu or even remotely monitor patients.