A similar study by Stanford University found that participants using a variety of trackers from Garmin, Fitbit, Apple and others found that 81 percent of patients who tested positive for coronavirus had changes in their resting heart rate up to nine and a half days before the onset of symptoms.
One of the challenging things about COVID-19 is that many people are asymptomatic, which means that they have no symptoms, but are still contagious. This makes it difficult to contain the infection using the traditional method of identifying someone who is sick and quarantining them.
The ramifications of the studies are clear. “Developing a way to identify people who may be sick even before they know they are infected would really be a step forward in the treatment of COVID-19,” said Dr. Hirten. “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.”
Researchers are not the only ones to notice the first symptoms of COVID-19 that can be detected by a smartwatch. A company called NeuTigers, born out of research at Princeton University, has developed an artificial intelligence product called CovidDeep that can help identify people with the virus in clinical situations or nursing homes.
The company used a clinical-grade wearable patient monitor, the Empatica E4, to take a variety of skin, heart rate and blood pressure readings. Putting that information into CovidDeep, they found that they could detect the virus at a 90 percent rate – more accurately than typical temperature scans. They eventually plan to produce their own app that works with Fitbit, Withings, Apple, Samsung and other smartwatches.
Even without custom algorithms, a smartwatch or wearable can still be useful. The PGA Tour recently started using Whoop health trackers, and that may have helped player Nick Watney realize he was positive. “They did studies where, if your breathing rate increases during the night … that’s kind of a telltale sign that you might have something,” said champion Rory McIlroy in June. “Actually, it was his Whoop who said [Watney] his breathing rate went up, which is why he thought he might be able to. “