Higher sensitivity monitoring of reactions to vaccination using smartwatches

Title : Higher sensitivity monitoring of reactions to vaccination using smartwatches

Abstract:

The absence of sufficient vaccine safety information is one of the key contributors to vaccine hesitancy. In this presentation, I will discuss the methodology and findings of four of our recent studies that evaluated the safety profile of the second and third BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 booster vaccines using data from a retrospective cohort (based on EMR data) and a prospective cohort, in which all participants wore a Garmin Vivosmart 4 smartwatch and completed a daily questionnaire via smartphone. Both our retrospective and prospective analyses supported the safety of the second and third boosters, with our findings reflecting physicians' diagnoses, patients' subjective reactions, and importantly - patients' objective physiological measures. Interestingly, we found that that the smartwatches were able to detect physiological responses following vaccination that were not captured by patient self-reporting.

Audience Take Away:

• Safety profiles of vaccines should consider both physicians' diagnoses, patients' subjective reactions, and objective physiological measures.
• The ubiquity of smartwatches provides an opportunity to gather improved data on patient health, including active surveillance of vaccine safety.

Biography:

Erez Shmueli is an Associate Professor, Head of the Big Data Lab, and Co-Head of the Data Science undergraduate program at Tel-Aviv University. Holding a BA degree (with honors) in Computer Science from the Open University of Israel, he earned his MSc and PhD degrees in Information Systems Engineering from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. His postdoctoral fellowship at the MIT Media Lab further enriched his academic journey. Erez's research is dedicated to developing Artificial Intelligence (AI) models for understanding, predicting, and influencing human behavior using real-world data from sources like smartphones and wearable devices. Over the past years, his focus has particularly shifted towards the intersection of AI and healthcare.