Apple Watch Can Detect COVID-19 Up to 7 Days Before Testing Positive
January 19, 2021Smartwatches aren’t the vanity timepieces they are made out to be. Initially, that may have been the case, however with the advancement of sensors and other measuring tools, they are fast becoming essential instruments in health and fitness. The Apple Watch and Samsung Galaxy Watch Active2 are able to detect signs of AFib, an invaluable diagnostic tool.
Now, researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai say that detection of COVID-19 is possible through the use of the Apple Watch’s heart monitoring function. It’s able to signal the onset of the disease up to 7 days before the sufferer is diagnosed with the infection.
The observation was made known in a new preprint from the Warrior Watch Study. The investigators monitored health care workers at the Mount Sinai health System. The participants also needed to download a customized app on their iPhones. Working in tandem with the Apple Watch, the software monitored heart rate variability (HRV).
There were significant changes in the HRV metric for those who had contracted COVID-19 up to 7 days before they tested positive for the virus or developed symptoms. The result indicates how valuable a smartwatch can be to the average user. That said Apple isn’t the only company that features heart monitoring tech in their watches.
Garmin, Fitbit, Amazfit, Samsung and a whole host of others also tout such functions. However, only the Apple Watch and Samsung Galaxy Watch Active2 have been cleared by the FDA for AFib (Atrial Fibrillation) detection. This life saving tech has provided early warnings to sufferers long before they were in any immediate danger.
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