Under a new partnership, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) will collaborate with Current Health to develop an algorithm based on a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved wearable monitor to predict the need for COVID-19 hospitalization.
By forecasting the need for hospitalization and ICU level care in advance, and detecting deteriorating health remotely, safe management or treatment of COVID-19 could potentially be improved. Presently, Current Health’s patient monitoring platform combines vital-sign sensors and connectivity to other devices and telemedicine to do exactly that, allowing for continuous monitoring from afar.
The wearable sensor collects data on respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, mobility, pulse rate, and body temperature data. It can also gather novel COVID-19 biomarket information, which is the most valuable part of this arrangement. This data will help inform the algorithm being sought and allow researchers to design the algorithm to detect patient deterioration and predict disease severity.
This would also allow healthcare providers to care for less high risk patients remotely.
While the FDA has greenlit the wearable device, emergency use authorization will be sought for the algorithms as well, with BARDA’s support.