SAN MATEO, CALIF., JUNE 4, 2020 – Evidation Health today announced a new effort to develop an early warning algorithm to detect symptoms of COVID-19 and to understand susceptibility to infection, funded by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The Evidation platform will analyze behavior, including sleep and activity patterns, alongside self-reported symptoms for 300 people at high risk of developing COVID-19. This builds on Evidation’s current, ongoing 150,000-person nationwide initiative tracking people’s health and attitudes during the pandemic, COVID-19 Pulse.
“Many infected individuals are asymptomatic but still able to spread the virus, making efforts to prevent and slow transmission of COVID-19 difficult,” said Luca Foschini, Ph.D., Evidation’s co-founder and chief data scientist. “This initiative will use novel behavioral and physiological data to more effectively identify when and where people may contract COVID-19, and can potentially enable real-time interventions to limit spread and monitor outcomes.”
The analysis, performed in collaboration with non-profit 4YouandMe, will use de-identified data generated by self-reporting and wearable devices to track symptoms of COVID-19 in those at particularly high risk, including health care workers and other first responders, in order to better understand susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection. One potential outcome of this work is an early warning algorithm to help individuals better understand and monitor their respiratory disease symptoms and take precautions against their spread.
“The ability to self-monitor and be informed of health status will empower Americans in their decisions to help slow the spread of this pandemic and improve health outcomes for people with COVID-19,” said BARDA Acting Director, Gary Disbrow, Ph.D. “This pilot study is not only an early step in demonstrating the utility of models developed using person-generated health data but also may provide data to better understand the varied symptoms of COVID-19.”
This program follows Evidation’s work with BARDA to monitor individuals for respiratory infections, such as influenza. Evidation’s existing research on influenza utilizes person-generated health data and population-based models with the goal of improving real-time respiratory infection monitoring at the individual and population level. BARDA is contributing a $720,000 award as part of BARDA’s COVID-19 Rapidly Deployable Capabilities program to identify and pilot near-term innovative solutions for COVID-19. Support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is from the $250 million the foundation has committed to address the COVID-19 pandemic.
ABOUT EVIDATION
Evidation measures health in everyday life and enables anyone to participate in ground-breaking research and health programs. Built upon a foundation of user privacy and control over permissioned health data, Evidation’s Achievement platform is trusted by millions of individuals—generating data with unprecedented speed, scale, and rigor. We partner with leading healthcare companies to understand health and disease outside the clinic walls. Guided by our mission to enable and empower everyone to participate in better health outcomes, Evidation is working to bring people individualized, proactive, and accessible healthcare—faster. Founded in 2012, Evidation Health is headquartered in California with additional offices around the globe. To learn more, visit evidation.com, or follow us on Twitter @evidation.
ABOUT HHS, ASPR, AND BARDA
HHS works to enhance and protect the health and well-being of all Americans, providing for effective health and human services and fostering advances in medicine, public health, and social services. The mission of ASPR is to save lives and protect Americans from 21st century health security threats. Within ASPR, BARDA invests in the advanced research and development, acquisition, and manufacturing of medical countermeasures – vaccines, drugs, therapeutics, diagnostic tools, and non-pharmaceutical products needed to combat health security threats. To date, 54 BARDA-supported products have achieved regulatory approval, licensure or clearance. Learn more about preparing for and responding to public health emergencies, from new infectious diseases to natural disasters and bioterrorism, by visiting the HHS public health emergency website, www.phe.gov. For more information on partnering with BARDA on developing medical countermeasures, visit www.medicalcountermeasures.gov.
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