BOSTON (WHDH) - A Boston-based tech company is using its wearable athletic device to track coronavirus.
WHOOP is studying data from hundreds of users who have tested positive for the virus in the hopes that the information they gather can be used to help healthcare workers on the front lines.
“So I’m wearing the WHOOP strap on my wrist, it’s a very small sensor you can see here. You wear it on your body it’s collecting data, 50 to a 100 times per second and sending all of that data to your phone and phone to the cloud,” founder and CEO Will Ahmed said.
The WHOOP wearable device tracks a user’s heart rate and respiratory rate among other stats.
Beginning in March, the company started using this data to track patients suffering from COVID-19.
“We’ve had hundreds of people report testing positive for COVID-19 in our app. So we were able to look at WHOOP data, before, during and after COVID-19 to see what happens in an individual’s data,” Ahmed explained.
Then, Ahmed said the data that is gathered from the app is studied for patterns.
“What we’ve seen that appears to be specific to COVID-19 is an elevated respiratory rate two to three days before someone feels symptoms COVID-19.”
He said that they then share their research with CQU and Cleveland Clinic — two of the leading institutions in coronavirus research.
“And again, we’re doing a lot of research on this, we’re publishing it. We want to do everything we can to fight this virus,” he said.
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