The authoritative source: in Journal of Medical Internet Research, an institution in the field of medical informatics, we read that theApple Watch can help detect coronavirus up to a week earlier than classic molecular swabs. the outcome of a study conducted in recent months by a team of researchers from Mount Sinai Health System, a network of eight hospitals in the New York area, and published in January by the authoritative Canadian magazine. How is it possible? Simple: through the accurate heart rate monitoring that the hi-tech Apple watch can offer to its users.
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The key indicator of the device
As stated in the paper, the research – entirely independent from Cupertino – was conducted on 297 health workers who wore a Apple Watch Series 4 o Series 5 between 29 April and 29 September. All were asked to complete a daily health survey to track any symptoms onset, and as expected some of them (13, to be precise) tested positive for the virus during the observation period. Well, once the data of their Apple Watch were crossed with those of the participants who remained negative, to attract the attention of the researchers was an indicator on all: the one relating to heart rate variability (i.e. the time between one beat and another, a key metric for evaluating the good or bad functioning of the nervous system). This is because the values of the positive subjects proved to be significantly lower than those of the negatives. An outcome actually in line with the consequences of Covid-19: We already knew that the markers of heart rate variability change when inflammation develops in the body – he explained to the Cbs Rob Hirten -, and Covid is an incredibly inflammatory event. This allows us to infer that people are infected before they even know it.
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The alert up to 7 days before the confirmation of the infection
On closer inspection, the latter is the most surprising point of the study. As mentioned, in fact, significant changes in heart rate variability were recorded up to 7 days before the actual confirmation of the infection by tampons, that detect the virus only a few days after infection. This means that while limiting itself to predicting (certainly not detecting) the presence of Sars-CoV-2 in the user’s body, Apple Watches can be a valuable ally to ensure that potentially positive individuals take all the necessary precautions not to spread the pathogen. In addition, the research also revealed that the heart rate variability of infected participants did normalized rather quickly after diagnosis, returning to normal limits within one to two weeks after the molecular tests.
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The Stanford precedent
Not the first time that science has highlighted how smartwatches can play an important role in the fight against Covid-19. In fact, as early as November, early changes in the heart rate of subjects who later proved positive had also been reported by one studio of Stanford University Published on Nature Biomedical Engineering. In that case, in addition to the Apple Watches, trackers from Garmin, Fitbit and other brands in the industry. The results had been just as noteworthy as 81% of those infected had experienced changes in heart rate up to nine and a half days before symptoms appeared. It will now be the task of the experts, and in particular of the manufacturing companies, to understand how to enable the single user ad notice suspicious changes in full autonomy. Only in this way can such evidence bring concrete benefits in the real world.
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February 19, 2021 (change February 19, 2021 | 17:09)
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