SF Hospitals Test mHealth Wearables for Coronavirus Monitoring

More than 2,000 care providers in San Francisco are using mHealth wearables to monitor their temperature in a program designed to identify people who’ve been infected by the Coronavirus as quickly as possible.

In a project developed by the University of California at San Francisco, emergency medical workers at UCSF and Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital are wearing Oura Rings, which monitor heart and respiratory rates and changes in body temperature. The digital health devices are being given to staff who have recently come in contact with people infected by COVID-19 and will be worn for three months.

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“The purpose of this study is to collect information from a wearable sensor that may allow researchers to develop an algorithm that can predict onset of symptoms such as fever, cough, and fatigue, which can characterize COVID-19,” UCSF officials said on the website explaining the TemPredict project.

A blog post on the Oura site indicates the project will be split into two phases. Front-line healthcare workers are included in the first phase, while the second will concentrate on consumers who already own Oura rings.

“By taking daily symptom surveys, study participants will directly contribute their observations paired to their data to the UCSF team,” the blog states. “Researchers will use this information as they attempt to identify patterns that could predict onset, progression, and recovery in future cases of COVID-19. If this approach is successful, it could open the door for research into tracking and managing other illnesses and conditions.”