Indian startup GOQii launches world’s first wrist band with sensors to detect body temperature – An early symptom of COVID-19 infection

GOQii has announced a major breakthrough in early COVID detection, tracing through the launch of GOQii Vital 3.0. In one of the world’s first major disruptions in COVID-19 prevention through its Wrist Band with Sensors to detect COVID-19 Symptoms.

The smart band will track vitals like Body Temperature, Heart Rate, Blood Pressure & Sleep while keeping a check on your step count and calories. GOQii has partnered with German health tech startup Thryve to conduct a clinical study in India to detect COVID-19 infections earlier than testing.

GOQii Vital 3.0 has an inbuilt temperature display and thermal sensor that has two ways of temperature monitoring. The continuous monitoring feature and the on-demand feature is for users who would like to check it at their convenience. The temperature range is 77°F to 113 °F with an accuracy of +/- 0.3 °F. Apart from temperature GOQii Vital 3.0 will track Heart Rate, Blood Pressure, Sleep, All day Activity and Steps.

World over, there is an urgent need for the development of rapid wearable diagnostics to identify and isolate COVID-19 cases and track and prevent the spread of the virus. The US Army, recently called out to tech companies to develop such a device. GOQii has shared the details of GOQii Vital 3 with the Medical Technology Enterprise Consortium, a subsidiary of US Armed Forces and awaiting their feedback.

Given the advanced preventive health capabilities of the platform, GOQii’s Brand Ambassador Akshay Kumar has donated 1,000 GOQii Vital 3.0 bands to Mumbai Police who are at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19. The Mumbai Police department will be the first organisation in the world enabled to remotely track and manage the health of its Personnel via the GOQii Preventive Health Platform.

GOQii is partnering with Thryve, a German healthtech company focusing on aggregation and analysis of health data generated by wearables, medical devices and other health data sources. Thryve’s machine learning-based algorithms provide actionable insights on infectious diseases like COVID-19, depression and other medical conditions. They help health services to uncover the underlying patterns, detect people’s health progress trajectory and lead health-care with proactive insight provisioning.

Germany’s official corona app, the Corona-Datenspende https://corona-datenspende.de (Corona Data Donation), gathers vital signs from volunteers wearing smartwatches or fitness trackers – including pulse, temperature and sleep data – to analyse whether they are symptomatic of the flu-like disease COVID-19.

Through this partnership, GOQii will conduct a clinical study in India, to check the accuracy of early detection of COVID-19. Detection of characteristic changes in body temperature and other vital data enable early detection of COVID-19 symptoms. The combination of Thryve’s unique machine learning-based algorithms and GOQii’s Vital 3.0 Smart band will usher a breakthrough in technology advancement to address the current crisis in timely detection of COVID -19 that has engulfed the globe.

The preparation for clinical trials are underway and in 3-6 months results will determine the future of early diagnosis and its accuracy, thus helping governments across the world in preventing and curbing the spread of the deadly virus. Thryve already collaborates with the German public health authority, Robert Koch-Institute to help monitor the spread of COVID-19 using wearable data. This solution provides better information on whether measures to contain the novel coronavirus pandemic are working.

“We are seeing the evolution of the Internet of Health, Integration of Wearables + Coaches/Doctors + Machine Learning into a preventive ecosystem will lead to better health outcomes. Governments, Hospitals, Schools, BPOs, Insurance, Banking, Ride-sharing, Food delivery, E-Commerce & Logistics companies around the world are in talks with us to use the GOQii Vital 3.0. Combined usage of the detection algorithm and the GOQii Vital 3.0 Smart Band can help significantly in isolating potential COVID-19 patients and preventing further spread. We are confident that the clinical study will show positive results in predicting COVID-19 infection,”, says Vishal Gondal, Founder & CEO, GOQii.

“We are happy to partner with GOQii in their endeavour to create a preventive healthcare ecosystem and be the front runners to bring about a revolution in early detection of the COVID-19 virus”, says Friedrich Lämmel, CEO, Thryve. “Wearable devices provide valuable data that can be translated into actionable health insights by our advanced algorithms,” he added.

To curb the rapid spread of the virus, governments across the world are making sure temperature checks are mandatory at every public place. Temperature checks are an important tool that can be effective at many levels – pre-detection phase, as an increase in body temperature, is the first symptom of being affected by the virus and post-detection, as people in quarantine need regular and timely temperature checks. GOQii Vital 3.0 will help users, as well as patients, check their temperature without any human contact, especially contact with nurses and doctors thus reducing exposure to others.

GOQii Vital 3.0 will be available in India in phases and on an immediate basis for the frontline workers, government & private enterprises and some units will be available for the public. Plans are underway to launch in the US, UK, Australia, Japan, UAE, Singapore and other countries. Following PM Narendra Modi’s call of ‘Be Vocal about Local’ #AtmaNirbharBharat GOQii is also evaluating manufacturing options in India.

GOQii Vital 3.0 will be available for order from the GOQii App and will be soon available on online platforms like Amazon and Flipkart.  The GOQii Vital 3.0 is only a screening device and not a medical device. It is recommended that it be used for screening purposes only. All data collected by GOQii is subjected to HIPAA, GDPR and relevant data privacy guidelines.
GOQii Vital 3.0 is priced in India at a MRP of INR 3999/-