Health startup GOQii has launched a new wearable that measures body temperature — a key symptom of COVID-19. Priced at Rs 3,999, the wearable — Vital 3.0 — can measure and record the user’s body temperature every 3-4 minutes, and will soon be available on Amazon and Flipkart.
How it works: A sensor located at the bottom of the band takes a person’s body temperature, within a range of 77-113 °F, with a margin of error of 0.3 °F. The band also measures heart rate, sleep, steps taken, and calories. A log of this, along with analysis, seen on the GOQii app. Users can set limits/alerts for body temperature and heart rate. The company is following HIPPA guidelines and is compliant with the GDPR with regard to the fitness band, CEO Vishal Gondal said.
Availability: The band will be available in a phased manner, but will be immediately available to frontline workers, government agencies, and private companies. It isn’t clear how the company will prioritise making the device available to frontline workers, government agencies, and private companies.
The device’s usage for detection of COVID-19 will be limited, as a significant proportion of cases are asymptomatic. When asked about this, CEO Vishal Gondal said the band is an “early detection system”. The band is not a medically approved device, but it can still be used for reference.
The Mumbai Police will be the first organisation that will be able to remotely track and manage the health of its personnel via the GOQii platform. The company’s brand ambassador Akshay Kumar donated 1,000 of the bands to the Mumbai Police.
Partnered with German start-up Thryve to run clinical study: GOQii has also roped in German health start-up Thryve to conduct a clinical study in India to check the accuracy of early detection of COVID-19 using wearables. Thryve will take different datasets collected by GOQii, including temperature, sleep, and nutrition data, and will run algorithms on them for “early detection of COVID”. Thryve launched a smartwatch app with Germany’s public health authority last month that gathers health data from volunteer users and analyses it to see if any of them may be coming down with COVID-19 symptoms.
The device is currently manufactured in China, but the company is evaluating manufacturing options in India. GOQii is in talks with other private and government organisations for them to use the band, and is planning to launch the band in the UK, UAE, Australia, Japan, UAE, and Singapore. It has also reached out to the US Army.
