In the early days of the pandemic, dozens of researchers launched studies trying to see if wearables of all types could potentially identify covid-19 before the onset of symptoms. In one of these studies, researchers at Mount Sinai found that the Apple Watch was able to detect the onset of covid-19 up to seven days before current testing methods.
THE study, which was published in Journal of Medical Internet Research, studied the impact of covid-19 on several hundred health professionals at Mount Sinai Health System between April and September last year. All participants wore an Apple Watch and responded to daily symptom surveys using an app. The researchers then observed changes in the participants’ heart rate variability (HRV), which measures changes in heart rate and is an indicator of their autonomic nervous system.
The interesting conclusion of this particular study is that, first, subtle changes in a person’s HRV helped researchers to identify and predict whether that person could be infected or have symptoms of covid-19 a week before being tested by means of a nasal swab. This is great, as covid-19 can be contagious before any symptoms appear. A week’s heads-up is so far among the longest reported delivery times. Another rumor was that HRV patterns returned to normal 7 to 14 days after diagnosis, to the point that they were not statistically different from uninfected participants.
“This technology allows us to not only 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 be separated,” said study co-author Zahi Fayad, PhD . on a Press release.
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This is in line with the idea that wearables can be a useful tool in screening tests, as well as potentially identifying diseases in pre-symptomatic stages. Several other researchers also identified HRV as a potential metric for detecting infections, while others also pointed to respiratory rate and body temperature as potential signifiers. And while studies are currently being conducted with Apple Watch, Fitbits and Garmin devices, among others, the wearable that has been published the most in relation to covid-19 remains the Oura Ring. The Oura Ring was the wearable of choice for the NBA in its reopening efforts, and some promising preliminary research he found that he could detect covid-19 up to three days before symptoms appeared with 90% accuracy. That said, it is important to remember that, regardless of the headlines you read, none of the wearables mentioned above is able to officially diagnose covid-19. Furthermore, just because this study focused on the Apple Watch, it doesn’t necessarily mean that other wearables wouldn’t be able to do the same thing.
It has also been about a year since many of these studies were launched, and we will probably see some more discoveries launched in the coming weeks and months. However, whatever discoveries surface, consumers may not see “early disease detection” features on their personal wearables during it is pandemic. This would require some degree of authorization from the FDA, which is usually a slow process. Still, it is also possible that these findings will help doctors better manage future flu outbreaks or even monitor patients remotely.