Digital Health Solution to Support Testing During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Remote monitoring of our physical and mental health has been possible for a number of years thanks to new technologies and collaborations like the one between ALMA.care and Garmin Health. Using wearables to feedback on a range of metrics has allowed medical practitioners to assess patients from a distance. And it is this same technology that is now being developed to provide a remote COVID-19 screening tool.

Proactive Risk Management

Founded in 2016, ALMA.care is a digital health company headquartered in Belgium that uses artificial intelligence to assess health and screen for early signs of chronic conditions. By harnessing tracking technology and AI, ALMA.care is able to provide customers with actionable insights and alerts to address issues even before they appear.

This move from reactive intervention to personalised proactive risk management has many benefits: individuals are able to reduce unnecessary travel to medical institutions, which they may find physically challenging, and minimise or entirely avoid health risks thanks to changes made based on remote assessment. For society as a whole, the reduction in visits to doctors surgeries and hospitals, for both assessments and treatment of potentially avoidable conditions, reduces overall costs and frees-up space for other patients.

Garmin Health and ALMA.care

Calculated from real-time heart rate data, the ALMA.care program uses heart rate variability as a key metric to reflect the status of the autonomous nervous system. Thanks to an integration with the Garmin Health Companion SDK that allows the ALMA 24/7 App to receive health metrics directly from Garmin wearables, ALMA.care is able to provide customers and medical practitioners tailored health insights. This more complete data allows for health problems to be more quickly predicted and prevented, with smart alerts sent whenever action is needed.

COVID-19 Screening Tool

During the current crisis, the avoidance of unnecessary onsite visits is more important than ever, both to reduce exposure for vulnerable members of society, and to avoid the spread of coronavirus if a person does test positive. The ability to test remotely becomes an invaluable tool in the global action against this pandemic.

Kris Sienaert, Founder & CEO of ALMA.care, says: ‘Today we are fine-tuning the next iteration of our technology… and we are working on a COVID-19 model. Based on data of COVID-19 patients, we are training and testing a new model that can turn every smartphone into a COVID-19 screening tool. Proof of health at your fingertips.’

Kris Sienaert notes that ‘People with non-communicable, perfectly preventable chronic conditions are extra vulnerable to COVID-19, so during and after this crisis it will become extremely important to support people avoiding and/or reversing these chronic conditions.’ And this is what both ALMA.care  is aiming to do, both through a new COVID-19 screening tool and by generally empowering users to take control of their physical and mental well-being.