WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Could your smartwatch sense early signs of COVID-19? New research at Purdue University hopes to find out.
Many of us wear them for daily fitness. Kylie Harness and Jillian Bolen of Indianapolis were among several runners on the downtown canal Tuesday, putting their watches to good use.
"I use it every day. I'm a data geek," Bolen said. "I like seeing how many steps I get, how much activity I'm doing per day."
"Mine is great for daily fitness things," Harness added. "Whether running, CrossFit-style workout."
But what if the smartwatch that tracks your health could also sense when you're getting sick?
"If you could have your watch tell you, 'Hey, you might be coming down with the flu', that might help you identify that earlier to stay home and we can limit the spread of that," said Craig Goergen, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Purdue.
In a pandemic, it could be a game-changer.
Researchers at Purdue are studying whether biometric data on a smartwatch, like your heart and breathing rates, could be used to accurately detect the early signs of COVID-19.
"There's a suggestion that heart rate and respiration rate can actually predict viral infections before you start to see fevers or other symptoms," Goergen explained. "So this won't replace a diagnostic. You'd still need to get tested. But the idea is that it could tell you earlier on in the process that you may be having some kind of viral infection and you should get tested earlier."
For the study, Purdue teamed up with PhysIQ, a digital health technology company based in Chicago that started enrolling last month. 100 participants of all ages and genders are getting smartwatches and chest sensors to wear for five days. Their data is then sent remotely to researchers at PhysIQ for analysis.
Goergen says they expect results for publication within a couple of months.
Again, a smartwatch can't tell you if you're COVID-19-positive, but the hope is to discover that we can get a warning of potential illness right from our wrist.
"This would tell you you might not be healthy right now, you should go get a test or maybe think about working from home for the next few days," Goergen said.
And that would certainly help slow the spread of the coronavirus, especially in people who are asymptomatic.