Coronavirus symptoms can now be predicted in advance using biometrics, including data from Oura ring. According to Techcrunch's latest report, a platform was developed by a team of researchers from the West Virginia University (WVU) Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute (RNI), together with the staff of Oura Health and WVU's Medicine department. The researchers claimed that it can be used to predict COVID-19 symptoms in healthy people, three days in advance.
Also Read: COVID-19: Researchers Think Putting Electric Field in Face Masks Can Kill Coronavirus and Avoid Infection
According to the researchers, the technology enables earlier testing and potentially reducing the risk of coronavirus exposure among essential front-line healthcare workers. The researchers also claimed that the new platform could help with the screening of pre-asymptomatic individuals.
Also Read: COVID-19 Contract Tracing in Elderly Homes Made More Effective with Wearable Technology
Biometric data acquired from Oura Ring, a wearable device that looks like a metallic ring, is involved in the study. The Oura Ring includes sensors to monitor a number of physiological metrics such as sleeping patterns, body temperature, heart rate, body activity, and more. WVU and RNI Medical researchers combined the gathered data with cognitive, behavioral, and physiological biometric information acquired from around 600 first responders and healthcare workers.
COVID-19 symptoms can be predicted in advance using biometrics and data from Oura Ring
Oura Ring was worn by individuals who participated in the study, and the additional data gathered was used in developing AI-based models that could anticipate symptoms before they even physically appear. The researchers claimed that the study showed that the innovation has a 90% accuracy rate on predicting the occurrence of COVID-19 symptoms. However, the early results gathered from a phase one study are yet to be peer-reviewed.
Oura smart ring #mydata #oura #älysormus #fineduai #finland #innovation pic.twitter.com/uCfYuSuoR3 — Aki Puustinen (@apuustin) January 21, 2020
They said that symptoms such as coughing, fever, fatigue, breathing difficulty, and other signs that could indicate that an individual has contracted the novel coronavirus can be predicted by the newly developed platform. A flag from the platform could mean they seek testing up to three days before the symptoms appear, but it doesn't mean that they are infected by the COVID-19 virus.
This would help medical experts identify potentially infected people, preventing them from infecting other individuals three days before the symptoms appear. With the support of other academic partners on board, the study targets to expand its coverage targeting as many as 10,000 participants across different institutions in multiple states.
RNI and its supporters fully funded the study, and Oura will be joining strictly in a facilitating capacity and to assist with hardware for deployment. Predictive models that could anticipate coronavirus onset before the symptoms physically manifest are already being tested by many projects to help slow down the COVID-19 infections.
