Communications of the ACM
Wearable Device Study Looks to Detect COVID-19 Upon Infection
Non-vaccinated health care workers will wear the Empatica E4 wristband for 30 days.
Credit: Empatica
University of Miami Miller School of Medicine researchers are recruiting health care workers to study whether a wearable device, a wristwatch, can capture real time data that can be used to alert wearers of subtle physiological changes that may indicate they have become infected with COVID-19.
The goal of the research is to prevent COVID-19 transmission in health care settings by letting wearers know that they may have been infected before clinical signs or symptoms of the virus start. Study participants will wear the Empatica E4 watch for 30 days during non-working hours.
"The wearable device employs an algorithm to capture early signs for respiratory infection. We are recruiting 70 health care workers who do not have COVID-19 and have opted not to get the COVID-19 vaccine," says Frank J. Penedo, professor of psychology and medicine at the Miller School of Medicine. "The idea is to be able to pull biometric data such as temperature and heart rate together to see if there is a way to accurately predict seroconversion to COVID-19 prior to the development of clinical symptoms that otherwise might not be detected."
From University of Miami
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