Fitbit launches in-app study on link between wearables and Covid-19
Fitbit haslaunched a studyto help determine whether its trackers and smartwatches can detect Cofiv-19 or flu symptoms.
US and Canadian Fitbit owners can opt-in to the study in the Discovery tab of the app under Assessments & Reports. They’ll be asked to fill out a short questionnaire and agree to let Fitbit aggregate the answers with fitness data to see if there’s any correlation between illness and the metrics they collect.
The goal is to see if wearables might be able to alert infected individuals of Covid-19 or flu before they are symptomatic or infect others. You have to be over 21 to opt-in to the study.
There’s obviously no guarantee that Fitbit will find a connection to early stages of illness and its wearables’ tracking but it’s good to see that it’s trying. There are millions of Fitbit devices in use around the world and the company is sitting on a lot of data, so it clearly feels it has an obligation to try and help in this time of pandemic.
Fitbit wasacquired by Googlelast year, though both companies have not revealed what has changed behind the scenes. In this study Fitbit appears to be operating as its own entity still.
See our recommendedBest Fitbitroundup for more details of the company’s activity trackers and smartwatches.
Author: Henry Burrell, Contributor
Previously Tech Advisor’s Phones Editor, Henry covers and reviews every smartphone worth knowing about. He spends a lot of time moving between different handsets and shouting at WhatsApp to support multiple devices at once.
