The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) has invented a wearable that can identify diseases six days prior to illness.
The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), in partnership with the private sector, has developed an A.I. algorithm they say was highly successful during the COVID-19 pandemic in identifying infections.
In a 28 April announcement, Jeff Schneider, program manager for the Rapid Assessment of Threat Exposure project, also known as the RATE program, said the Defense Department is looking to expand its use to other infectious disease detection in service members.
With $10 million in additional funds, RATE will build on its 2020-21 success which demonstrated that wearable technology could predict COVID-19 and other infections 2.3 days prior to diagnostic testing.
Currently using biometric data from commercial grade off-the-shelf wearables, include Garmin watches and Oura rings, the plan is to use biomarker data from any worn smart device.
The DIU's RATE project uses a powerful, predictive artificial intelligence algorithm that was trained using hospital-acquired data from monitored cases of COVID-19.
Using biometric data from wearables, the RATE algorithm enabled early detection of infectious diseases up to 48 hours before symptoms appeared.
The algorithm, which, in some cases, predicted infections up to six days prior to onset, and included asymptomatic cases, was featured in a 2022 study published by the journal "Nature's Scientific Reports".
It highlights the efficacy of the algorithm-powered wearables to aid military readiness, according to Jeff Schneider.
He explains: "The DOD invests heavily in maintaining the readiness of its workforce to conduct essential missions. However, the risk of infectious disease, like COVID-19, has long been an unpredictable variable.
"With RATE, the DOD can use commercial wearables to noninvasively monitor a service member's health and provide early alerts to potential infection before it spreads."
With the additional funding, DIU is adding 4,500 more users across the department. One group will be the Air Combat Command's first sergeants. That command's new Diamond Care Initiative Plan is geared toward preserving the health and welfare of its 360 first sergeants, who will be issued wearables to better gauge their overall health and vital signs, said Air Force Maj. Michael Vernale, wing director of Talent Management and Assessments at Fort Meade, Maryland.
"First sergeants serve as the belly button to all the organisations in the U.S. Air Force, and this technology can improve their lives and the lives of the airmen they serve," Vernale said.
"Technology has finally produced a product that will increase overall health and wellness to a community of first sergeants who many times prioritise their people ahead of their own health," said Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Christopher Gradel, Air Combat Command.
Tech company Philips is involved in the algorithm development and has expanded its efforts on a global scale to accelerate commercialisation and scaling.
Navin Natoewal, head of integrated technology solutions at Philips, says: "Because our algorithm is device agnostic, we can use biomarker data from any commercial grade, off-the-shelf wearable.
"We then run those markers against our clinical data sets in the cloud to create a RATE wellness score. The score has proven to be indicative of onset of infections. We can offer it through a licensing model to anyone who wants to add this capability to their device or as a stand-alone service.
"Not only do they get A.I. that has gone through several years of field testing and a peer-reviewed study, it is a cost-effective way to add the technology, while we continue to expand the data sets and the research working with leading academic institutions."
"The plan is for RATE to be device agnostic," added RATE's Schneider, but the current deployment of wearables will include Garmin watches and Oura rings.
As the Philips-DIU team continues to prove out the new dataflow, the effort aims to add three additional popular wearable devices. The 11,000 former RATE users will also be able to re-affiliate with the projects if they still have the hardware."
The Food and Drug Administration has determined that RATE is classified as a general wellness device.
