The BioButton may be able to detect early COVID-19 infection

Early detection of COVID-19 is difficult with even the up-the-nose/throat PCR test having the probability of a resultant negative test of 67% four days after infection¹. We have seen some places use temperature checks but that is unreliable at best with 74% of COVID-19 patients not meeting a fever threshold².

Some health monitoring companies are looking to improve this early detection through the variation of physiological signs associated with early infection. BioIntelliSense have created their new BioButton as a way to provide a “scalable and cost-effective solution for COVID-19 symptom monitoring” in an everyday setting.

The single-use FDA-approved wearable provides for continuous vital sign monitoring for up to 90 days and is the size of a 20 cent piece. Providing continuous temperature, respiratory rate and heart rate at rest it can provide daily health screening surveys to help provide your COVID-19 risk status.

It does this by analysing the data it collects and detects any statistically meaningful trends/changes in your vital signs. It can also detect your activity level and body position measurements.

The BioButton connects to your iOS or Android device using Bluetooth and the BioMobile app. The app gives you the “Cleared” or “Not Cleared” badge notification after filling out the survey and analysing your vital information uploaded to the app from the BioButton.

The BioButton has been named Best of Innovation as a CES 2021 Innovation Award honoree and has the potential to provide us with more COVID-19 safeguards as we look forwards to a vaccine-achieved herd immunity.

1. _{Rudolph JL, Halladay CW, Barber M. Temperature in Nursing Home Residents Systematically Tested for SARS-CoV-2. JAMDA 21 (2020) 895e899 Kucirka LM, Lauer SA, Laeyendecker O, Boon D.}
2. _{Variation in False-Negative Rate of Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction–Based SARS-CoV-2 Tests by Time Since Exposure. Annals of Internal Medicine. May 13, 2020.}

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