ASK: Research on COVID-19 monitoring tool

Call for hospitals, research institutes and companies to cooperate on a COVID-19 epidemic control and monitoring tool

Israel Institute of Technology is seeking to find research partners for their non-invasive approach to detect and follow-up with individuals who are at-risk or have an existing COVID-19 infection.

They have created a wearable device that uses novel intelligent hybrid sensors with multiplexed detection capabilities that can detect disease-specific biomarkers from exhaled breath and/or from the surface of the skin, enabling rapid and highly accurate diagnosis using a small device.

The wearable technology will incorporate secure transmission to enable privacy-ensured diagnosis monitoring by clinicians, national health systems and worldwide health organisations. It will be tested and applied in several clinical centres worldwide to predict at-risk individuals while they are still at very early stages in an isolation period, with the COVID-19 virus still in its incubation phase.

Individuals that receive positive results will then be monitored using the same wearable during the whole period of treatment, to follow-up on the efficacy of the treatment and/or decide whether any further interventions are needed.

Based on the collected information, the project will generate algorithms for predicting the hospitalisation period and prognosis.

They expect that this research will lead to a reduction in number of unnecessary confirmatory tests and lower the burden on the hospitals, while allowing individuals a screening solution that can be performed as home.