Smartwatches Can Predict COVID-19 Cases

Using retrospective smartwatch data, a new study published by Nature on November 18, 2020, showed that 63% of the COVID-19 cases could have been detected before symptom onset in real-time via a two-tiered warning system based on the occurrence of extreme elevations in resting heart rate relative to the individual baseline.

These findings suggest that activity tracking and health monitoring via consumer wearable devices may be used for the large-scale, real-time detection of respiratory infections, often pre-symptomatically.