MedCity News September 25, 2020
Before the pandemic started, the U.S. Department of Defense and Philips designed a system to detect potential infections before symptoms appear. Now, they’re turning it on the Covid-19 pandemic.
Long before the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the U.S. Department of Defense and Royal Philips had been working on a project to detect potential outbreaks of infectious disease before they happen. The idea was to use wearable devices to catch the early signs of a bacterial or viral infection before symptoms appear — potentially useful in preventing the spread of disease in naval ships, dorms, and other close groups.
The project, called Rapid Analysis of Threat Exposure (RATE), wasn’t just intended to pick up on common infections, such as the...