Brainworks launches Medio Smart Health, an AI-powered heartbeat-monitoring app with free COVID-19 symptom and vital sign tracking

Back in April, we covered Nodle after the IoT tech startup launches Coalition, a free, privacy-first contact tracing app to help stop the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19). As we pointed out, when it comes to these apps, people were greatly concerned about the privacy and possible overreach of these tech companies in what they intend to do with the data they collect, which seems like it’ll be a topic of concern even once we’re beyond this pandemic.

Coalition seemed cognizant of these worries by designing the app so that data is only voluntarily shared and maintaining an open source platform. With the amount of contact tracing apps in the public eye and the uncertainty of how effective they’ll be, with some countries reporting success and others countries showing less favorable results, it might be easy to discount how technology can play its role in effectively keeping people out of harm’s way.

Now, there is a new web-app we think is on the right track to give the people what they need to monitor the status of their health. Brainworks is an Emeryville, California-based tech startup and provider of AI-enhanced, non-contact vital sign measurement and automated digital healthcare tools.

This week, Brainworks announced the launch of Medio Smart Health, a national-scale, AI-powered web-app for personal health management and COVID-19 specific symptom tracking. With Medio, individuals can use their mobile phones, computers, and tablet cameras to automatically measure and track their vital signs, monitor their health over time, and answer specific CDC recommended screening questions related to COVID-19.

Specific, trackable symptoms related to COVID-19 detected through video-based ambient biometrics, including heart rate, respiration rate, changes in skin tone related to blood oxygenation, are automatically measured by the cameras in iOS Safari-enabled mobile devices as well as other smartphones, tablets, and PCs. The easy-to-use website is available for immediate use, allowing users to track changes to their health and determine whether they should seek additional testing, medical care, or hospitalization.

Founded in 2018 by Markus Krause, Brainworks is a provider of AI-enhanced, non-contact vital sign measurement and automated digital healthcare tools for personal, telehealth and next-generation medical clinics and hospitals. The company’s first product, Medio Smart Health, is a national-scale service for personal health management and COVID-19 specific symptom tracking.

“As the global COVID-19 pandemic continues to worsen, the current, centralized hospital and clinic model is no longer safe. Any visit to a hospital or clinic risks catching the Coronavirus, and that’s only if the clinic has room for you,” said Dr. Phillip Alvelda, CEO and Chairman of Brainworks. “Each day, the general public and essential workers struggle to find a safe way to be tested. This was our motivation for speeding up the process for getting our health assessment tracker in the hands of everyone who can use it. We’re determined to do our part to help stop the spread of COVID-19 and get America safely back to work.”

The health assessment tracker does not diagnose, but enables millions of critical healthcare, first responders, food-chain, and other essential workers, as well as the general public, to test themselves as often as they like, even two-to-three times a day. Individuals can monitor trends in personal health, share records with their doctor, and make informed decisions before entering public facilities without risking further contagion of the deadly disease. Later this quarter, patients recovering from COVID-19 can use Medio to help decide when they might be well enough to return to work, while minimizing risk of infecting others.

Medio is only the first step in Brainworks’ plan to slow the spread of COVID-19 through increasing awareness of personal health without the hassle of a medical office visit. The subsequent versions slated to be available later this year, will include workforce management and oversight tools for businesses and services to oversee the health of their workforce, patients and customers.

For the general public, ages 5+, Medio offers the means to identify when and where they should seek testing, or when their condition is serious enough that they should seek immediate medical care and hospitalization. Users can monitor their own progress through the disease, all without having to go to a hospital or clinic where they would risk a high likelihood of infection unless they truly needed the additional care. Artificial intelligence is used to sort through the data collected to assure the accuracy of the information gathered.

The combination of camera sensor and AI can detect and interpret minute changes in skin tone and movement. For example, when a heart beats, there is a pulse of change that happens in one’s body, and Medio detects that variation automatically. Through the site, users will also answer the CDC recommended screening questions, so they are able to make more confident decisions about whether they are safe to go to work or enter high traffic areas, while minimizing risk of infecting others with COVID-19.

“One of the most overlooked characteristics of CV19 is its often-rapid progression, where a patient can go from bad to worse, even immovable, in a matter of hours. This is a huge problem when patients are instructed to quarantine in isolation. Our goal is to also use this technology to alert loved ones and primary care providers if someone suddenly falls too ill to check-in. This will dramatically decrease the number of deaths at home due to failures in remote care and response,” continued Alvelda.