The study’s results suggest that wearable devices can be used to track abnormal physiological activity consistent with the onset of a disease.
(Mirror Daily, United States) –Wearable medical devices have become very popular nowadays, being used to monitor stuff like blood pressure, sleep patterns, and exercise habits.
But what if these tiny wonders of technology can do more than showing you how much you ran or how many calories you’ve burned during your last training session? A new study aims to prove that wearable gadgets can detect even the subtlest signs of a disease, by monitoring dozens of physiological parameters.
The new study focused on creating more reliant wearable sensors belongs to a group of from the Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine Department (Stanford University). Dr. Michael Snyder, the Department’s director, and the lead researcher said that in just a couple of years, wearable sensors hooked up to a mobile device will be as reliant as a vehicle’s sensors.
By keeping track of other physiological parameters, these smart devices can sniff out the tell-tale signs of a disease even before the person realizes that he’s sick.
For the purpose of the study, Snyder and his colleagues invited 60 people to partake in the study. All participants were asked to wear a wearable device around the clock for the duration of the study. On an average, the team managed to get more than 250,000 per day from each participant.
The enhanced biosensors were designed to monitor biological parameters such as heart rate, blood oxygenation level, temperature, calories consumed throughout the day, and sleep patterns.
To understand what’s normal and what’s abnormal, the first part of the test was committed to getting baseline readings. After getting a good idea of what normal physiological parameters should look like, the team continued to monitor the participants’ wearable devices. At the end of the study, the team amassed a whopping 2 billion readings.
The study’s results suggest that wearable devices can be used to track abnormal physiological activity consistent with the onset of a disease. These results were corroborated by Dr. Snyder’s experience who also wore a biosensor.
During a family trip, the doctor came down with Lyme disease-related symptoms. But even before the Snyder experienced the onset of the disease (i.e. high fever, rash, joint pains) the device he was wearing revealed abnormal body activity.
However, the team believes that there is room for more research before wearable devices can be effectively used to diagnose complex medical conditions.
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