Apple Watch is becoming an important tool in the fight to prevent the spread of COVID-19

Apple Watch is becoming an important tool in the fight to prevent the spread of COVID-19

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Suppose there was an electronic consumer device that could tell you if you have coronavirus and deliver your results faster than a standard COVID test. According to CBS News, smartwatches like the Apple Watch, and those produced by Fitbit and Garmin, can tell someone if she has coronavirus before symptoms appear and even before swab tests are positive. This is important, as a recent CDC test found that more than half of coronavirus cases are transmitted by asymptomatic people.

Smartwatches can determine if someone has COVID-19 faster than a standard nose swab test

The reports that say how smartwatches can play an important role in COVID-19 tests do not come from the technology companies that make these devices. These reports come from legitimate medical institutions, such as the Mount Sinai Health System in New York and Stanford University in California. The ease of using a smartwatch to test for coronavirus can play an important role in controlling the virus.

Mt. Researchers from Sinai found that the Apple Watch can detect subtle changes in a person’s heartbeat that indicate that person has coronavirus up to seven days before feeling sick or getting a positive result from a standard COVID test. The researchers studied heart rate variability, which is the variation in time between each heartbeat. This can measure how well a person’s immune system is functioning. Rob Hirten, assistant professor of medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine in Mount Sinai, New York, said: “We already knew that heart rate variability markers change as inflammation develops in the body, and COVID is an incredibly inflammatory event. This allows us to predict that people are infected before they know it. “

Individuals with COVID-19 have less heart rate variability, which means that the time between heartbeats hardly changes. Those without COVID-19 experience greater variations in time between heartbeats. Remember that increasing heart rate variability has nothing to do with a high heart rate. High heart rate variability is a sign of an active nervous system belonging to a person who is more resistant to stress. So while a high heart rate is not good for a person’s health, high heart rate variability can be a good sign.

During a test run, 300 Mt. Sinai workers used an Apple Watch during the five months between April 29 and September 29. As Mt. Hirten from Sinai points out: “At the moment, we have people saying they are sick and not feeling well, but using an Apple Watch does not require any active user input and can identify people who may be asymptomatic. It is a way of improve controlling infectious diseases. “

A different study conducted by Stanford was based on the theory that 81% of those who tested positive for coronavirus had changes in their resting heartbeat up to nine and a half days before the onset of symptoms. An extremely high heart rate was a sign that the symptoms of COVID-19 had just started. Stanford researchers used smartwatch data to identify 67% of COVID-19 cases four to seven days before the first symptoms appeared. The team also created an alarm to inform users that their heart rate has increased over a long period of time.

Professor Michael Snyder of Stanford University, who led the study, said: “We adjust the alarm with a certain sensitivity so that it sounds every two months or more. Regular fluctuations do not trigger the alarm – only significant and sustained changes do.” Snyder also stated that “it is a big deal because it is warning people not to go out and meet other people.” Snyder’s own alarm went off recently, forcing him to cancel a personal meeting if he was infected. The Stanford study examined 32 people who tested positive for the virus, out of a total of 5,000 people who participated in the study.

The current coronavirus test has disadvantages that using a smartwatch can solve. Snyder points out that “The problem is that you can’t do this (standard COVID test) on people all the time, while these devices measure you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The smartwatch returns data immediately, in real time, while if you are lucky to get your test back in a few days. “Most smartwatches can measure the user’s heart rate and the Apple Watch Series 4 and the latest models can perform an electrocardiogram (ECG) that monitors the heart rate of user.

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