Israeli researchers design wearable sensors to improve vaccine trials

JERUSALEM, April 10 (Xinhua) -- A group of Israeli researchers has designed wearable smart sensors to help monitor the process of vaccine trials, Tel Aviv University (TAU) in central Israel said on Sunday.

The researchers said that wearable sensors can better help vaccine developers make early identifications of abnormal reactions and therefore improve the process of the trials.

The new method is better than the current practice in vaccine trials, which is primarily based on self-reported questionnaires and may lead to biased results, it added.

The TAU said the study was conducted between Jan. 1 and March 13, 2021, during the mass COVID-19 vaccination campaign in Israel.

The researchers gave chest-patch sensors to 160 adult participants to monitor them and use a mobile application for collecting the information the sensors updated automatically every day.

The research monitored heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, respiratory rate, blood and pulse and mean arterial pressure, heart rate variability, stroke volume, cardiac output and index, systemic vascular resistance and skin temperature.

The team identified a significant discrepancy between subjective self-reports about side effects and objective physiological measurements, even finding significant abnormal reactions from some self-claimed asymptomatic participants.