One of the most popular accessories and training aids used by professional golfers may one day be able to give users a warning that they’re getting sick or that they may have contracted the novel coronavirus, according to the company’s founder and CEO.
Whoop, a tech start-up based in Boston, makes the Whoop 3.0 strap and the software it runs. Athletes wear the device either on their wrist or on their biceps, and it continuously measures heart rate and a host of other data. Using the company’s software, golfers can monitor their training, track sleep and work toward improving their fitness and performance.
Golfweek wrote about Whoop in detail in January, but there may be another benefit to wearing the device. According to Will Ahmed, the company’s founder and CEO, some of the data the strap collects may be able to determine that a user is sick, possibly with COVID-19, before the individual becomes symptomatic.
During an episode of the Forward Press podcast, Ahmed said, “we’ve been launching deep into COVID-19 research. We were the first consumer product to add COVID-19 tracking in our app. Starting in early March, you could actually label whether you have COVID-19 or tested positive for it.”
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According to Ahmed, hundreds of people who use Whoop and who have the virus have opted to volunteer their data and allow the company to study it. The company is trying to find commonalities and patterns among users in the days leading up to contracting the virus, while they are sick and after they recover. (The company declined to say how many use the device.)
“We may be able to predict it, that’s what we’re working on right now,” Ahmed said. “All of the individuals who have tested positive on Whoop have a few very common elements to them. Two seem to be somewhat specific to COVID-19, and two of which seem to be general signs that your body is run down.”
An elevated resting heart rate and a lower level of heart rate variability, both of which Whoop measures while the wearer sleeps, could be signs a person is getting sick or may have over-trained.
However, individuals who indicate that they have tested positive for COVID-19 generally have not been able to exercise to their usual level in the days leading up to showing symptoms, Ahmed says. They can’t complete runs, bike rides or workouts they normally would finish.
“The second piece, which we believe is the smoking gun, is respiratory rate,” Ahmed said. “Everyone has a respiratory rate while they are sleeping, and that’s effectively breaths per minute.”
According to Ahmed, a person’s respiratory rate almost never changes but instead remains virtually constant.
“What we have seen for everyone we have seen so far, in the data we have looked at, is the respiratory rate is elevated two days, three days before someone shows symptoms,” he said.
COVID-19 is known to affect the respiratory system and cause a fluid buildup in the lungs, making it hard for people to breathe. Therefore, said Ahmed, it makes sense that people who have the virus would breathe more when they sleep. He stated the common cold and flu would not affect the respiratory rate.
Whoop is not a medical device, but if it proves to be predictive and could hint to users that they’re getting sick, it might help golfers and other athletes keep themselves and their families from spreading the virus.
