Helo Corp Invites Health Researchers and Medical Professionals to Join Project CEASE, an International Field Experiment to Identify the Onset of COVID-19 Infection Using AI and Anonymised VYVO Smartwatch Data
SAN FRANCISCO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / May 21, 2020 / Helo Corp. (OTC PINK:HLOC) (“Helo Corp”), a leading developer of wearable devices embedded with Life Sensing TechnologyTM and dedicated to improving wellness worldwide, today invites health researchers and medical professionals to join its Project CEASE (COVID-19 Early Alert System Experiment) to help format and analyse its anonymised VYVO smartwatch wearer data to see if data patterns gathered from its wellness devices can be used to indicate the onset of a viral infection, such as COVID-19.
Helo Corp’s smartwatch data is already being used in an early alert system called Guardian Alert, which is available to VYVO smartwatch wearers who have pre-selected their guardians for notification if their data indicates that they have fallen or they have had an Atrial Fibrillation episode or a sleep apnea event. In addition, the Guardian Alert system notifies guardians if the wearer’s breath rate, heart rate, blood oxygenation and temperature are outside of their normal ranges.
Although Helo Corp’s non-invasive devices are intended only for general wellness use and provide personal tracking as part of promoting a healthy lifestyle, we believe the data that these devices gather will provide useful insights for participants in Project CEASE, both VYVO smartwatch wearers and the health and medical professionals who join us. In addition, Project CEASE data will soon be enhanced with data from VYVO’s latest devices which are currently in production and use medical grade sensors for temperature measurement. These sensors provide ± 0.1°C accuracy from 30 to 45°C (86 to 113°F) and meet the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) E1112 and International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 80601 requirements for patient thermometers.
Helo Corp is asking VYVO smartwatch wearers to share their ongoing bio-data gathered from their VYVO smartwatch and to complete a health status questionnaire, which will includes results from the rapid antibody COVID-19 test kit that is being provided to wearers that participate in Project CEASE. These test kits with two separate tests included, have already been sourced from approved manufacturers and selected for participants depending on the participant’s location, to ensure compliance with their local country regulations. Test kits are being provided to participants to standardize participants’ infection status feedback across the project.
Project CEASE is being conducted in three phases. The first phase of data collection will commence when existing VYVO smartwatch wearers opt-in to sharing their bio-data using their VYVO Smart App. The Algorithm Training Phase, the second phase, will commence once sufficient data has been gathered to train our AI algorithm to identify possible data patterns that may indicate the presence of a viral respiratory infection. The third or Validation Phase, is where the trained AI algorithm is applied to Project CEASE participants whose infection status is unknown. If a high probability of an influenza-like infection is detected in a participant’s data, they will receive an Early Alert notification (similar to the image below). To validate the notification as generated by the AI algorithm, the participant will be requested to consult with their doctor and, if so advised, undertake and share the result of their COVID-19 test.
Simulated image of VYVO’s Guardian Alert notification system illustrating the probability of a viral infection.
Helo Corp believes the collection and aggregation of the bio-data of our smartwatch customers may be beneficial to the broader healthcare community. Consequently, Helo Corp is reaching out to medical doctors, professional researchers, healthcare providers, government bodies, hospitals, universities and commercial entities with project relevant capabilities to join Project CEASE to assist Helo Corp in framing the scope and format of the bio-data that we collect in a way that would be most useful. The broader goal of Project CEASE would be to gather and make available Helo Corp’s aggregated, anonymised wearer data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to assist the healthcare community to identify data patterns which might be used by them to indicate the onset of a viral infection, such as COVID-19. This aggregated, anonymised wearer data is available free to all approved research partners while Project CEASE remains active.
Fabio Galdi, CTO and Chairman of Helo Corp, said that “To ensure Project CEASE is meaningful on a worldwide scale, we are looking for at least 25,000 VYVO smartwatch wearers to contribute their data. The good news is that we believe we can easily achieve this level of participation with our existing VYVO smartwatch wearers. Using this crowd sourced, cloud based real-time data collection process, together with the power of big data analysis and machine learning, we expect to be able to provide bio-data that will indicate patterns and trends to assist in identifying a likely onset of a viral infection. This would enable us to not only notify the VYVO smartwatch wearer so they can seek early treatment and self-isolate to protect their family and friends but also benefit the healthcare community as a whole. Using traditional research methods, a global field experiment of this magnitude could take years,” Mr Galdi continued “but we believe that, by using our devices and technology, we have the potential to see meaningful results and possibly Project CEASE validation in a much shorter time frame.”
Seán McVeigh, CEO of Helo Corp., said that, “Although today COVID-19 detection is a high priority activity, this type of research and development is not new for us. Our VYVO smartwatches already provide personal alerts and supporting data to wearers and their guardians, when events such as atrial fibrillation, low blood oxygenation, elevated temperature or sleep apnea are detected. However, given the critical nature of this pandemic, our focus is on Project CEASE so we can make our contribution to science by providing readily available and real-time data set that will help identify the mechanism of action of this virus, minimize its impact and reduce transmission rates. We thank our prospective VYVO participants for their invaluable contribution and welcome the opportunity to invite and share our aggregated data with other experts, so we can all do our part to help stop the transmission of this virus.”
About Helo Corp.
Helo Corp. is a technology company that provides wearable devices for use in the quantified-self, wellness market. Our wearable devices and related applications provide our wearers with health related knowledge acquired through self-tracking. Our Life Sensing TechnologyTM uses state-of-the-art sensors, enhanced signal processing and algorithms to collect and process specific data gathered from our smartwatch wearers; and it is embedded into our wearable devices that are designed, produced and sold into the wellness market through our marketing and distribution partner, Vyvo Pte. Ltd. and its distribution network. For further information, please see: www.helocorp.com.
Project CEASE is being managed by Vyvo Labs, the Quantified-Self Research Center of Helo Corp’s US subsidiary, Vyvo Technology Corp. For further information, please see www.vyvolabs.com.
Contact: investors@helocorp.com or +1 650-646-2193
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SOURCE: Helo Corp.
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