A team of researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai found evidence that smartwatch can detect symptoms of COVID-19 before people realize they are infected. The team at Mount Sinai described on its website how 297 healthcare workers were tested by viewing Apple Watch data.
One of the early signs of COVID-19 infection is inflammation at the infected site of the body. When inflammation begins, the body responds by slightly changing the blood flow. Changes in blood flow can be seen from a slight change in a person's heartbeat and can be detected by Apple's smartwatch. By paying attention to a person’s heartbeat for a long time, a smartwatch can determine the normal baseline of the person wearing the watch. The device can also detect when sudden long-term changes occur, such as persistent heart rate variability. During the tests conducted at Mount Sinai, volunteers were asked to wear smartwatches all the time and install watch apps dedicated to finding constant heartbeat changes. The researchers found that the watches were able to identify two-thirds of the infected people on average seven days before volunteers discovered any symptoms.
CBS News recently investigated the results of another study by the Mount Sinai team and Stanford University, and other companies investigated whether their smartwatches could work similarly. They found that the answer is mostly yes, and smartwatches can usually detect COVID-19 infection a week before symptoms start. They further pointed out that engineers can develop applications for smartwatches to alert users, and the user can then quarantine themselves until testing is performed. They further noted that this is likely to slow the spread of the current pandemic and the possible future pandemics.
