Early-Warning System for Detecting Infections Is Being Studied

Most of the early physiological and biochemical changes that could be an indication of an infection in a patient’s body are asymptomatic, said Ben Hwang, chairman and CEO of Profusa, in an interview with MD+DI. “People don't see or feel [them],” he said, noting that it could be weeks before patients present with symptoms such as a fever or cough. But in the meantime, as we have seen with the COVID-19 pandemic, asymptomatic people could be spreading diseases unknowingly. “What will be helpful is to be able to identify individuals at the presymptomatic stage, so that you could actually create interventional procedures along that population before they are symptomatic, and before they can pass on the disease to somebody else,” Hwang said. He believes that Profusa’s Lumee Oxygen Platform will be able to do this. “The hypothesis is that our sensors could actually pick up those changes before an individual realizes [that he or she] has a fever or a sore throat,” he said. To prove this, Profusa is currently conducting a study, in collaboration with RTI International and research centers including Duke University and Imperial College London, to potentially assist in the early detection of influenza outbreaks. The goal of the study is to develop an early identification system to detect not only disease outbreaks but also biological attacks and...
Source: MDDI - Category: Medical Devices Authors: Tags: Implants Source Type: news