In May 2020, the manufacturer of Fitbit activity monitors recruited volunteers invited to participate in a study in order to determine whether its products make it possible to detect the COVVI-19.

If the results of this study are conclusive, Fitbit could use an algorithm that would detect the disease before the appearance of the first symptoms, based on precursor signs such as heart rate, level of physical activity and sleep.The manufacturer would send an alert to the user who would present the warning signs of COVID-19, inviting him to place himself in quarantine and, if symptoms appear, to be tested.

The results of the study, carried out in collaboration with the Scripps Research Translational Institute and the Stanford Healthcare Innovation Lab, have not yet been revealed.However, according to the Wall Street Journal, preliminary results show that changes to breathing and heart rate can precede several days the appearance of symptoms of COVID-19.

>> À lire aussi notre test de moniteurs d'activité et notre test de montres intelligentes et d'entraînement

Several studies in progress

Fitbit and its partners are far from being the only.For example, the manufacturer of the intelligent ring Oura, which makes it possible in particular to take the temperature of its users, tries to determine if its product can detect the warning signs of the COVVI-19.

Oura already tests her product with players and staff of the National Basketball League (NBA).When the ring records certain signs, such as a higher temperature than usual, the person is asked to pass a screening test of the COVVI-19.

Some doubts

Mickaël Martin, kinesiologist at the pavilion of heart disease prevention of the University Institute of Cardiology and Pneumology of Quebec, doubts that activity monitors would be very useful for detecting the new coronavirus.

"The data collected is not necessarily specific to the COVID-19," he says.An increase in heart rate, a drop in physical activity and an increase in sleep can be linked to COVID-19, but also to flu or cancer, for example.»»»»

That said, he recognizes that by analyzing large amounts of data with artificial intelligence, companies like Fitbit could manage to identify the precursor signs of COVVI-19.

Dr. Martin Juneau, cardiologist and prevention director at the Montreal Cardiology Institute, is not convinced either that activity instructors will manage to detect the new coronavirus well."If you are tired, that you make the temperature, that your heart rate at rest is higher than usual and your saturation of oxygen in the blood begins to decline, you probably have a viral disease,he explains.But it is illusory to think that these gadgets can make a diagnosis of COVID-19.»»»»