A new activity- tracking platform is launching out of stealth today with $1 million in pre-seed funding to help those suffering from Long COVID track and manage their symptoms.
Harry Leeming is an engineer who lives in London and has suffered from Long Covid for the past two years.
Millions of people around the world still suffer long-term effects from COVID-19, with studies suggesting that between 20% and 40% of those who have contracted COVID-19 experience ongoing symptoms.
At least 17 million people in Europe alone experienced Long CO in the first two years of the Pandemic, according to the World Health Organization. Post-exertional malaise and chronic fatigue syndrome are both related to minor physical exertion.
One way to counter the effects of PEM is to use a pacing strategy. The first part of the product will be available in open alpha today.
The CEO and COO are visible.
In its initial incarnation, Visible is a free mobile app, with plans to introduce a premium subscription in the U.S. and U.K. A heart-rate monitor that can be worn on the upper arm will be included.
Manual data inputs are used for Visible for now. The time in between heartbeats can be an indicator of a person's health and wellbeing. When it is not supporting a hear-rate monitor, how can it be tracked? There is a technique called photoplethysmography which can be used to analyze HRV in humans, and it has been shown to be an alternative to the traditional method of analyzing HRV.
The user puts their finger over the lens of their camera for 60 seconds each morning to detect small changes in a person's skin color.
Leeming explained that the changes allow them to measure the time between heartbeats.
Users can track their symptoms with the help of Visible.
There is a visible app.
With continuous tracking, Visible promises to be more effective in helping users adopt an effective pacing strategy, ensure that they don't over-exert themselves, and allow their bodies more time to recover.
Real-time data and notifications will be included when it discovers that the user is doing too much activity which can make their symptoms worse.
According to published research, this approach can improve functional outcomes for people with post-viral illness. A compromised aerobic energy system is caused by post-viral illness. It is possible to avoid a broken energy metabolism response by keeping your activity levels below a certain threshold.
Users are provided with insights and prompt.
It is possible for people to make decisions based on hard numbers rather than subjective estimates of the severity of their condition with the help of data gleaned from a Wearable.
Those who pay for a Visible Plus subscription and use the accompanying Wearable will get data from the Polar Verity Sense. This allows Visible to figure out if the body responds to moving into an upright position from lying down. Changing one's posture can affect a person's heart rate.
Leeming said that it will be comparable to other consumer subscription services. It is likely that we are talking about around $10 per month. There could be scope to extend support to devices from other manufacturers if someone already has their own wristband.
Leeming said that they expect to support a wider range of Wearable Devices in the future.
A number of new ventures have arrived on the scene over the past couple of years, trying to speed up Long COVID treatments. A non-profit startup called the Long Covid Research Initiative has received funding from Vitalik Buterin to study and develop treatments for the disease. After becoming frustrated with the lack of urgency in many of the government led programs, a Long COVID sufferers decided to take things into his own hands. There are clear comparisons with Visible.
Millions of people like me have not recovered from COVID and are struggling every day. There is no clear diagnosis, no pharmaceutical treatment, and no recognition of how life-changing these conditions are. Patients like myself have little option but to build the disease management tools that are badly needed, but also those with similar chronic conditions.
Third-party researchers can use the data from visible users to study Long COVID. Leeming has a research partnership with Imperial College London and is working with a team of academics who are researching the impact of the menstrual cycle on Long COVID symptoms. There is an advisory board of specialists in post-viral conditions.
Long Covid and ME/CFS are diseases that we need to better understand and help patients with. Patients can useVisible to measure and manage their own disease using only their phone. It will help clinicians and researchers with their knowledge of the diseases.
The pre-seed round of funding was co-led by a number of angels.
Leeming said that more than 4,500 people were on the wait list for the Visible app, a number it hopes will increase now that it is available on the two most popular mobile platforms.
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