Smartwatches might be able to help us avoid the next pandemic, says a study from Aalto University, Stanford University, and Texas A&M.
According to a release, the researchers found that “smartwatches could provide a simple and effective way to dramatically minimize the unwitting spread of disease in pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic people.”
Wearable devices can detect disease before their wearers, which can result in more people social distancing and avoiding spreading the disease. Additionally, early warnings could lead to earlier testing, according to the research.
The researchers “developed a multiscale modeling framework that integrates within-host viral dynamics and between-host interactions to estimate the risk of viral disease outbreaks within a given population,” according to the study abstract. They “used the model to evaluate the population-level effectiveness of smartwatch detection in reducing the transmission of three COVID-19 variants and seasonal and pandemic influenza.”
They found that 66% of people limited contact with other people after their smartwatches detected disease.
The study is published in PNAS Nexus.
