Israeli Researchers Use Smartwatches to Detect Diseases Early and Prevent Pandemics

Tel Aviv [Israel], August 6: Researchers from Tel Aviv University have discovered that smartwatches can detect infectious diseases days before symptoms appear. This breakthrough could help prevent future pandemics.

Study Details

In a two-year study with nearly 5,000 participants, the researchers found that smartwatches could detect changes in vital signs hours before symptoms of diseases like COVID-19, group A streptococcus (GAS), and influenza appeared. The smartwatches monitored pulse rate and heart rate variability (HRV) every 15 seconds, providing crucial data on heart and brain activity.

Key Findings

The study revealed that smartwatches could detect changes in vital signs 23 hours before the first COVID-19 symptom, 62 hours before GAS symptoms, and 73 hours before influenza symptoms. Early detection can lead to behavioral changes, such as reduced social contacts, which can prevent widespread contagion.

Prof. Dan Yamin, who led the study, explained that infectious diseases and pandemics pose a great threat to humanity, and scientific and technological abilities must be harnessed to prevent them. He noted that during the recent pandemic, about 40% of transmissions occurred a day before the first symptoms appeared.

Data Collection

Participants wore smartwatches and answered daily health questionnaires. They also had home test kits for COVID-19, influenza, and GAS. Over two years, the researchers collected 800,000 questionnaires and compared this data with the smartwatch readings, documenting 490 influenza cases, 2,206 COVID-19 cases, and 320 GAS cases.

Behavioral Impact

The study found that the first physiological anomaly in heart rate measures appeared 96 hours after exposure to COVID-19, while the first symptom was noticed 130 hours after exposure. However, testing occurred about 168 hours after exposure. Despite early symptom detection, participants tended to delay testing, resulting in prolonged periods of unintentional disease spread.

Prof. Erez Shmueli explained that people performed the test and changed their behavior when the disease was already past its peak. The delay between digital diagnosis and testing is crucial, as it can significantly reduce the spread of infectious diseases by prompting earlier changes in social behavior.

Conclusion

Prof. Yamin emphasized that digital diagnosis can prevent the next pandemic by reducing the basic reproduction number (R0 value) below 1.0, meaning each infected individual transmits the disease to less than one other person. Early diagnosis is also vital for effective treatment, particularly for COVID-19, where treatments are most effective when administered early. The new method using wearable sensors for early detection can potentially reduce epidemic threats to a minimum.