Mount Sinai researchers have presented a section on the future of digital health in the form of an Apple Watch.
The team’s Warrior Watch Study is one of the first on the subject of portable devices used to identify COVID-19 in people. It turns out that using this device can identify the virus up to seven days before current test methods, such as nasal swabs.
This new method could pave the way for future diagnostic methods and help track and improve virus management.
The team’s study was published in Journal of Medical Internet Research.
How COVID-19 Detects Portable Devices
Throughout the study, which ran from April to September 2020, the team enlisted several hundred health workers from Mount Sinai. These participants wore Apple watches that were linked to their iPhone apps, using the app to collect and monitor their health status. They also completed daily surveys to provide information on possible symptoms of COVID-19 and other factors such as stress.
The main focus that the researchers in the study paid close attention to was heart rate variability (VHR), which it detects when a person’s nervous system is tense.
What the team noticed was that through this method of wearing an Apple Watch and closely monitoring participants ’health, they could predict infections for up to a week before traditional tests confirmed the diagnoses.
In addition, they noted that HRV patterns returned to normal one or two weeks after diagnosis.
How they can be useful against COVID-19
By helping to detect COVID-19 earlier thanks to laptops, more people could be isolated earlier, thus minimizing the spread of the virus during this crucial week before testing.
What is more important, however, is that this method can be carried out remotely. No health worker should be endangered to perform traditional COVID-19 testing, as the diagnosis would be anticipated and detected from a distance and from the beginning.
The team notes that continuing to collect data on how to wear Apple Watch watches and other portable devices can help discover the impact COVID-19 has on the health of health care workers and how factors such as sleep and sleep are associated. physical activity in the disease.