The device is the size of a postage stamp and sticks to a person's chest to constantly measure coughing, breathing, and fever.
Researchers at Northwestern University are testing out dozens of the devices right now on patients and front line health workers in Chicago. It's technology that could be expanded coast to coast. They're using it on front line health workers to help determine if they've been exposed to the virus.
"For front line health workers if you pick that up early you can pull them out, give them treatment and kind of mitigate the spread of the disease," said John Rogers, a professor at Northwestern University.
While it helps determine if someone's getting sick they're also testing it out on patients who have the virus to understand how patients get better and why some deteriorate so quickly.
"They're not interested in minute-to-minute changes they want to see how things are progressing day to day or every six hours," said Rogers.
The technology was originally developed for stroke patients and then modified for COVID-19.
When the wireless device is removed from the skin, it's placed on a charger. That's when the encrypted data is uploaded and available for a doctor to review.
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