Early warning of viral diseases with wearables?

DETECT is a health research project designed to notify viral diseases early using a smart watch. According to a recent study, if your heart rate is higher than normal, you may have a cold, flu, corona 19 and other viral diseases. This project was initiated by The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), allowing researchers to gain insights into their health by using information from wearable devices capable of measuring heart rate developed by Apple and Fitbit.

The project could record symptoms such as cough or fever each user reported, along with heart rate data collected by the wearable device. Participants track heart rate and share this information anonymously with the research team. The goal of this project is to quickly identify areas where viral infections can be seen. In other words, it is to identify cluster occurrences. If the virus infection can be detected sooner, public health authorities will have more time to deal with the virus.

Detect collects biometric information such as heart rate directly from wearable devices. For example, we try to predict the relationship between the biological signal and the disease from the difference from the normal value, not from the average heart rate. In addition, the biometric data that Detect collects is data such as heart rate, body temperature, and sleep level.

The researchers found that the more people enrolled in Detect, the faster the virus outbreak could be predicted. Detect is supposed to function like Google Maps, a health data plate. For example, to detect and warn a cluster of Corona 19 infection early, it is said that 1 million users need to participate in the Detect project.

When you get a viral disease like seasonal flu, your body starts responding before your brain becomes sore aware. In addition to increasing body temperature and heart rate, the amount of activity decreases and the amount of time to sleep increases. Therefore, the research team revealed that they will be able to know how the body changes about vital signs before they are aware of it.

People with wearable devices can download the app (MyDataHelps) through the App Store and Google Play to participate in Detect. Related information can be found here .