Stanford University: New wearable sensors can help detect serious illness in the pre-symptomatic stages

Scientists from Stanford have published recent findings about the use of new types of wearable sensors that allow frequent and continuous measurements of body functions, including heart rate, skin temperature, blood oxygen levels, and physical activity.

The researchers investigated the ability of these sensors to follow physiological changes that occur over the course of a day, during illness and other activities. Data from these sensors revealed individual differences in daily patterns of activities and uncovered striking changes in particular environments such as airline flights, where blood oxygen levels decreased and this was associated with fatigue.

By combining sensor information with frequent medical measurements the researchers found wearable sensors are useful in identifying the onset of the tick-borne infection Lyme disease and of inflammation. Based on this, they developed an algorithm for “personalized” disease detection using such sensors.

Writing in PLOS Biology, the researchers also described how wearable sensors can reveal physiological differences between insulin-sensitive and insulin-resistant individuals, raising the possibility that these sensors could help detect risk for type 2 diabetes.

Overall, the results indicate that the information provided by wearable sensors is physiologically meaningful and actionable. Wearable sensors are likely to play an important role in managing health, the researchers say.

“Overall, these results indicate that portable biosensors provide useful information for monitoring personal activities and physiology and are likely to play an important role in managing health and enabling affordable health care access to groups that traditionally have restricted access because of socioeconomic class or remote geography.”

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