A new study suggests a wrist-worn health tracker can clear Covid 19 days before symptoms appear.

According to new research, the trackers can monitor changes in skin temperature, heart rate, and respiratory rate and make a diagnosis in combination with artificial intelligence (AI).

This group, writing in the BMJ Open magazine, tested the AVA bracelet. This is an existing fertility tracker that can be purchased online to track the best time to get pregnant. Monitor respiratory rate, heart rate, heart rate variability, wrist skin temperature, and blood flow.

In this study, 1,163 people under the age of 51 in Liechtenstein followed the onset of a pandemic. They were asked to wear an AVA bracelet at night, and the device stored data every 10 seconds. People need at least 4 hours of sleep for it to work.

The bracelet was synced with the smartphone app to record all activities that could affect the results, such as alcohol, prescription drugs and entertainment drugs.

They also reported possible symptoms of Covid-19, such as fever. All participants in this study underwent regular rapid Covid antibody testing, and symptomatic participants also underwent PCR smear testing.

A total of 1.5 million hours of physiological data were recorded, with 127 confirmed Covids, of which 66 (52%) used the device for at least 29 consecutive days and were included in the analysis.

This study showed that there were significant changes in the body during the incubation period of infection, the pre-symptom period, the pre-symptom period, and the recovery period compared to no infection.

Overall, trackers and computer algorithms detected 68% of people with positive covid-19 two days before the onset of symptoms.

The team, including the Basel Cardiovascular Institute team, concluded that the study was limited, including that not all Covid cases were reported. But they added: “Wearable sensor technology can detect Covid-19 in the pre-symptomatic period.

“Wear sensor technology is a low-cost, easy-to-use way to enable people to monitor their health and well-being during a pandemic.

“Our research has the potential for these devices to work with artificial intelligence to detect disease across the boundaries of personalized medicine (before symptoms occur) and reduce viral infections in the community. It shows.”

This algorithm is currently being tested by a much larger group of 20,000 people in the Netherlands and is expected to return results by the end of 2022.