APRIL 1
iH innovator Biofourmis, a global leader in digital therapeutics, has responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by leveraging its technology in a remote monitoring and disease surveillance program in Hong Kong involving patients with diagnosed or suspected novel coronavirus. The program—administered by The University of Hong Kong—also includes Hong Kong-based Harmony Medical Inc., which is Biofourmis' joint venture partner for the China region.
Diagnosed and potentially COVID-19-infected patients are being monitored with Biofourmis' Biovitals® Sentinel platform, a turn-key solution that the company built in less than two weeks specifically for this initiative by customizing its industry-leading, FDA-cleared artificial intelligence-powered Biovitals® Analytics platform. Biovitals® Sentinel's 24/7 remote monitoring technology and analytics. "The goal of this program is to leverage Biovitals® Sentinel to remotely monitor patients and identify COVID-19-related physiological biomarkers that indicate deterioration in patients," said David Chung Wah Siu, MD, Department of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong. "We hope our combined efforts also will rapidly lead to a better epidemiological understanding of COVID-19 so we can improve the outcomes of our citizens—as well as the global community—as more people become infected."
Patients with COVID-19 deterioration commonly exhibit symptoms such as fever, cough and shortness of breath, all of which can be closely monitored through related physiological parameters via Biofourmis' cutting-edge, clinical-grade biosensor Everion®, which is worn on the arms of quarantined patients at home or in clinical settings. Everion® can be comfortably worn 24 hours a day for several days and has much higher-than-average patient satisfaction and adherence rates. AI-powered Biovitals® Analytics will derive more than 20 physiological signals from the sensor data, including temperature, heart rate, blood pulse wave, heart rate variability, respiration rate, inter-beat-interval and others. These signals are then fed through advanced AI and machine-learning techniques to flag key physiological changes that could indicate disease progression.
The Biovitals® Sentinel solution also includes a smartphone app to collect qualitative data reported by patients as they respond to AI-generated "smart nuggets." Treating physicians, through the Biovitals® Sentinel clinician-facing web dashboard, will observe and be alerted to any significant physiological changes and adverse events so they can intervene when necessary.
"The sooner these biomarkers associated with COVID-19 deterioration are identified, the sooner healthcare providers can intervene and prevent a serious medical issue," said Kuldeep Singh Rajput, CEO of Biofourmis. "We currently know the common symptoms, but we are still learning how this strain of the coronavirus affects the body. This program will be a key step in achieving this important goal. When a pandemic such as COVID-19 spreads and so much is unknown, every second counts."
Dr. Raymond Tong, CEO of Harmony Medical Inc., Biofourmis' joint venture partner for the China region, added: "With this special partnership with The University of Hong Kong and its leading experts in the field, we are tackling the coronavirus in a rapid and an unprecedented fashion, which could potentially save lives." Biofourmis is in conversations with government agencies and other potential partners about applying its technology to help even more patients and to learn more about COVID-19 so that it can be treated more effectively. "The Biovitals® Sentinel solution is scalable and ready to be deployed in any country or region that wants to engage in similar disease monitoring or for patient care delivery," Rajput said. "We look forward to helping any other academic medical centers, government agencies or other entities that would be interested in a similar partnership."
For information, visit: www.biofourmis.com