PhysIQ and Purdue University launch study to develop algorithms for detecting COVID-19 from biometric smartwatch data

Purdue University researchers have begun a study that would help determine if continuously collected biometric smartwatch data could be used to reliably and accurately detect these signs early, which could indicate that a potentially asymptomatic user should get tested for COVID-19.

Data from the study will inform new algorithms to be developed by physIQ, a Purdue-affiliated digital health technology company with support from the Purdue Research Foundation’s Foundry Investment Fund.

Smartwatches collect a wide range of physiologic data, but incorporating metrics such as heart rate, heart rate variability and respiration rate that may help detect COVID-19 at the earliest stages will take more research.

Although smartwatch-like devices are not currently substitutes for gold-standard diagnostic tests, some wearable devices are starting to serve as tools for helping a clinician make a diagnosis.

Craig Goergen, Purdue’s Leslie A. Geddes Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering, said: “There won’t be a point where a smartwatch can tell you that you’re COVID-19 positive, but it could potentially say, ‘Within the next couple of days, you might be getting sick and should go get tested’.

“An increased heart rate or respiration rate means something different if it increased while you were resting as opposed to running, but most smartwatches have difficulty distinguishing that. So, it is really recovery and resting periods that we are focused on with this approach.”

In a study of up to 100 participants, Goergen’s team will first determine whether wearing a smartwatch to collect these indicators is practical, unobtrusive and user-friendly. The researchers are recruiting Purdue students, staff and faculty as participants.

Each participant will be mailed a Samsung Galaxy smartwatch with a physIQ app loaded to collect data, FDA-cleared adhesive chest-based biosensors that collect a single-lead electrocardiogram signal, and a Samsung Galaxy smartphone to use for five days of continuous monitoring while Goergen’s lab analyzes data from the app remotely using physIQ’s cloud-based accelerateIQ platform.

Data from the chest patches will be processed by physIQ’s FDA-cleared artificial intelligence-based algorithms for deriving heart rate, respiration rate and heart rate variability. These data will serve as gold standard references to compare with data from the smartwatches.

The researchers plan to eventually expand the study to include individuals at high risk of contracting COVID-19.