INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Startups continue to find new ways to contribute to ongoing efforts to fight the global spread of COVID-19 during the current global
coronavirus pandemic, and personal health hardware-maker Oura is no exception
The smart ring startup is working with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) on a new study to see if its device can help
detect early physiological signs that might indicate the onset of COVID-19.
This study will include two parts: Around 2,000 frontline
healthcare professionals will get Oura rings to wear during the study
The rings track a user body temperature continuously, as well as their sleep patterns, heart rate and activity levels
Fever is a common and early symptom that could indicate COVID-19, and a continuously updated body temperature reading could detect fever
That not enough to confirm a case of COVID-19, of course, but the purpose of the study is to determine whether the range of readings Oura
ring tracks might, taken together and with other signals, be useful in some kind of early detection effort.
There good reason why researches
believe that Oura could be used in early detection: An Oura user in Finland claims the ring alerted him to the fact that he was ill before
he was displaying any overt symptoms of the virus, prompting him to get tested (relatively easy in that country)
Test results confirmed that while asymptomatic, he had indeed contracted COVID-19
As a result, UCSF researcher Dr
Ashley Mason hypothesizes that the Oura ring could anticipate COVID-19 onset by as many as two to three days before the onset of more
obvious symptoms, like coughing.
Being able to detect the presence of the virus in an individual early is key to global containment efforts,
but even more important when it comes to frontline healthcare workers
The earlier a frontline responder is diagnosed, the less chance that they expose their colleagues or others they&re working around in close
quarters.
In addition to the Oura rings being provided to study participants, the plan is to expand it to include Oura general user
population, meaning its more than 150,000 global users can opt in to participate and add to the overall pool of available information with
their ring readings and daily symptom surveys
For existing Oura users, it a relatively low-lift way to contribute to the global effort to combat the pandemic — without even leaving the
