Biofourmis, a developer of digital therapeutics that powers personalized predictive care, announced that its technology is being leveraged in a remote monitoring and disease surveillance program in Hong Kong involving patients with diagnosed or suspected novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
The program, administered by The University of Hong Kong, also includes Hong Kong-based Harmony Medical Inc., which is Biofourmis’ joint venture partner for the China region.
Biovitals Sentinel’s 24/7 remote monitoring technology and analytics are providing clinicians involved in the COVID-19 program with clinical decision support for early identification of any physiological changes that could indicate deterioration, and to enable earlier interventions for better outcomes, says a press release.
“The goal of this program is to leverage Biovitals Sentinel to remotely monitor patients and identify COVID-19-related physiological biomarkers that indicate deterioration in patients,” said Prof. David Chung Wah Siu, MD, Department of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong. “We hope our combined efforts also will rapidly lead to a better epidemiological understanding of COVID-19 so we can improve the outcomes of our citizens—as well as the global community—as more people become infected.”
Patients with COVID-19 deterioration commonly exhibit symptoms such as fever, cough and shortness of breath, all of which can be closely monitored through related physiological parameters via Biofourmis’ cutting-edge, clinical-grade biosensor Everion®. With several medical-grade sensors, including optical, temperature, electrodermal, accelerometer and barometer, Everion can be comfortably worn on the arm for 24 hours a day for several days and has much higher-than-average patient satisfaction and adherence rates.
AI-powered Biovitals Analytics will derive more than 20 physiological signals from the sensor data, including temperature, heart rate, blood pulse wave, heart rate variability, respiration rate, inter-beat-interval and others. These signals are then fed through advanced AI and machine-learning techniques to flag key physiological changes that could indicate disease progression.
“The sooner these biomarkers associated with COVID-19 deterioration are identified, the sooner healthcare providers can intervene and prevent a serious medical issue,” said Kuldeep Singh Rajput, CEO of Biofourmis. “We currently know the common symptoms, but we are still learning how this strain of the coronavirus affects the body. This program will be a key step in achieving this important goal. When a pandemic such as COVID-19 spreads and so much is unknown, every second counts.”
“We currently know the common symptoms, but we are still learning how this strain of the coronavirus affects the body,” Mr. Rajput said. “This program will be a key step in achieving this important goal. When a pandemic such as COVID-19 spreads and so much is unknown, every second counts.”
