Coronavirus pandemic | Hong Kong fights COVID-19 using device developed by IIT alumnus' startup

Amid the coronavirus outbreak, Hong Kong is using artificial intelligence (AI)-based remote monitoring system to track the health of COVID-19 patients and detecting symptoms of disease in quarantined people, The Times of India reported.

The device named Everion is developed by a Boston-based start-up Biofourmis, founded by an IIT-Chennai alumnus Kuldeep Rajput, the report said.

Everion, which includes biosensor, was developed five years ago to monitor heart failure patients. It is worn on the arm and can measure over 20 different biomarkers in real-time like oxygen levels, respiratory patterns, temperature and heart rate.

The biosensor used in the device includes a companion smartphone app that asks questions to patients about their symptoms and a web dashboard that doctors use to observe patients, as per the report.

The system, which is being administered by the University of Hong Kong, has been reportedly used to monitor 1,000 quarantined people and 100 positive cases in Hong Kong in the past two-and-a-half weeks.

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According to Dr David Chung at the University of Hong Kong, the region is facing tough time as it monitor the coronavirus outbreak. In this case, there is a need for round-the-clock touchless monitoring, he said, adding that such unconventional methods would help them in gauging an epidemiological understanding of the virus.

The device, with its medical-grade sensors that include optical, temperature, electrodermal, accelerometer and barometer, is helping medical analysts to track progress of the disease in coronavirus-hit patients and detect symptoms in suspected cases of the virus infection, the report added.

Hong Kong has reported 192 confirmed cases of coronavirus so far and four deaths, according to the website of the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.