Biofourmis’ AI-Powered Remote Monitoring Platform
- First-of-its-kind program administered by The University of Hong Kong has international implications and applications as COVID-19 continues to spread
- Clinicians to leverage Biofourmis’ cutting-edge wearable and artificial intelligence technology to accelerate disease surveillance and interventions
- Biofourmis’ technology will remotely monitor coronavirus infected and suspected patients and apply personalized predictive analytics to help patients and increase COVID-19 knowledge
Biofourmis , a global leader in digital therapeutics that powers personalized predictive care, announced today that its technology is being leveraged in a remote monitoring and disease surveillance program in Hong Kong involving patients with diagnosed or suspected novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). 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
(AI)-powered Biovitals® Analytics platform. Biovitals® Sentinel’s 24/7 remote monitoring technology
and analytics are providing clinicians involved in the COVID-19 program with clinical decision support
for early identification of any physiological changes that could indicate deterioration, and to enable
earlier interventions for better outcomes.
“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 Prof. 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 being worn on the arm by patients quarantined in their homes or clinical settings. Clinicians and researchers are still learning how this strain of the coronavirus affects the body, and the research will help elucidate that.
To measure body temperature and numerous other biomarkers, patients are wearing Everion®,
which has several medical-grade sensors, including optical, temperature, electrodermal,
accelerometer and barometer. Everion® can be comfortably worn for 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 in various
regions 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.”
