World over, scientific communities are striving to develop mechanical devices, mechanisms for early detection of COVID-19 to prevent worsening of the condition that can sometimes be fatal. A smart ring that produces continuous temperature for indication of COVID-19 is a magnificent creation to fight the pandemic. And, the device does so when infection is not suspected.
In fact, the device can provide timely signal about the disease, to serve to be a better indicator than a thermometer. To that end, this would enable earlier testing and isolation, reducing the spread of infectious diseases, according to an initial study carried out by University of California, San Diego and University of California, San Francisco.
Examination of previously infected individuals established efficacy of device
Meanwhile, an analysis of data of 50 individuals previously infected with COVID-19 established the efficacy of the device. It revealed that data obtained from commercially available smart ring accurately detected higher temperatures in individuals with symptoms of COVID-19. The development is published in the Dec 14 issue of the journal Scientific Reports.
On the other hand, it is not known how effectively the smart ring can identify COVID-19 asymptomatic individuals, which makes for 10 to 70 percent of individuals affected by the virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In fact, of the 50 participants, for 38, fever was detected when symptoms were not reported or even not noticed. Importantly, researchers examined weeks of temperature data to find typical temperature ranges for each of the 50 participants.
“Many factors influence body temperature,” said the principal investigator of the study. In fact, temperature measurement at a single-point is not very useful. This is because fever goes in and out for people, and a temperature that may be clearly high for one individual may not be significantly deviated for another person.
