Could your fitness tracker detect covid-19? 


Most of these smart devices use a mass of tiny sensors to get a picture of how you're doing and where you are. Optical sensors against your skin estimate heart rate and blood oxygen

levels; accelerometers and gyroscopes track movement; and galvanic skin response, a change in sweat gland activity, assesses your levels of exertion. Other sensors measure ambient light and

temperature, your location through GPS and barometric pressure, delivering a wealth of information on your health by establishing a baseline. "Some of these measurements, like heart

rate, are very accurate,” says Michael Snyder, M.D., chairman of the genetics department at Stanford University School of Medicine, about 30 miles southeast of San Francisco. “Others like

SpO2 [blood oxygen levels] are not, but it is the change from baseline that counts.” The programs first establish normal readings for a week or two (the so-called baseline), then look for

any abnormalities that might indicate illness in future readings. Radin and Snyder say they are focused mostly on heart rate changes and sleep disruptions, but other information, including

breaths per minute and pulse oxygenation levels, could help identify a specific illness, such as COVID-19, along with the assistance of data from thousands of patients and the application of

artificial intelligence programs. The more people who participate in such programs, the more accurate the health predictions may be about a specific illness, they say. That also will make

more public health data available that officials can use during new outbreaks. SMART RING MIGHT BE LESS INTRUSIVE One of the most ambitious programs aimed at warning the public and health

professionals about coronavirus outbreaks is run by the West Virginia University Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute and WVU Medicine in Morgantown, in conjunction with Oura Health.

Finland-based Oura makes a smart ring that measures not only heart rate but a person's temperature — one of the few such smart devices to do so. "The Oura ring has a good form

factor, and people can wear it when they are sleeping,” instead of a watch, which can be uncomfortable to wear in bed, explains Ali Rezai, M.D., a neuroscientist and executive chairman of

the WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute. By observing resting heart rates, body temperatures and deep-sleep patterns, the group is looking to forecast the illness with a degree of

accuracy and predictability previously not possible. Using a volunteer group of more than 800 first responders and medical professionals working in hospitals around the country, the

researchers are combining the smart ring information taken passively with a smartphone app that asks wearers questions about their health plus possible coronavirus exposure and compares

reaction times using a cognitive game to judge fatigue.