New Zealand team creates world-first innovation in the fight against Coronavirus

AUCKLAND, New Zealand, Jan. 23, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Datamine, a New Zealand based AI company, has created ëlarm: a personal early warning indicator for viral infection, including Coronavirus. The ëlarm system overcomes what is arguably our greatest obstacle – viral spread by asymptomatic people who do not know they are infectious. By developing personal baselines of biometric data from smartphones and other wearables (such as Fitbit, Apple Watch and Samsung), ëlarm detects changes to those individual baselines that fit COVID-19 patterns – changes that occur as the body begins fighting viral infection.

"With ëlarm, you can know you're sick before you feel sick," says ëlarm CEO and founding director of Datamine, Paul O'Connor.

Operating in New Zealand since June 2020, the ëlarm system has been developed to detect Coronavirus cases up to three days before people know they have the lethal virus."Based on our New Zealand success and the extensive data we've gathered from clinicians around the world, ëlarm is an accurate predictor of viral symptoms," Mr O'Connor says.

For more information: https://elarm.health/^[1]

While ëlarm is not a test and does not provide medical advice, the system alerts users to biometric changes that indicate viral infection and provides relevant World Health Organisation and CDC guidelines. This enables people to proactively get tested and self-isolate before any symptoms appear. This helps prevent the spread of viral infection to loved ones, communities, and workmates.

As opposed to developing technology based on specific smartwatches, ëlarm is 'device agnostic.' As a software service, ëlarm can use data from a growing list of wearable devices, and is available worldwide.

"When Covid-19 emerged, we had already created a vault where personal health and wearables data is safely stored and analyzed. We saw that we had the expertise and technology to make a substantial contribution in the fight against Coronavirus," Mr O'Connor explains. "With new Coronavirus strains and possible further mutations, the urgency is to slow the spread of the virus through our global population until a vaccine is available."

Professor Michael Baker, one of New Zealand's leading epidemiologists, says there are many useful applications for this technology. "It's very encouraging that New Zealand is producing exciting innovations of new surveillance tools for tracking people who are potentially infected by Coronavirus and other infectious agents."

ëlarm is available via the Apple Store and Google Play at www.elarm.health ^[2]

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