India develops Covid 19 detecting mobile app Lyfas

A government supported IT company in Bengaluru has developed an application named Lyfas which is capable of capturing an individual’s vital health statistics through mobile phone to determine one’s propensity to Covid 19 infection and can potentially play a big role in early detection of disease and risk assessment of infected population, according to a ministry of science and technology.

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Key-Points

Lyfas is an android application in which, when any person keeps the index finger on the rear phone camera of a mobile phone for five minutes, it captures the capillary pulse and blood volume change.

The technology is focused on population screening, monitoring of quarantined individuals and surveillance at the community level. KAWACH initiative is supporting market-ready innovations for the control of COVID-19.

The technology has been proved to detect asymptomatic individuals with an accuracy of 92%, specificity of 90%, and a sensitivity of 92% in a study conducted with Medanta Medicity hospital.

The new technology based on medical screening has the potential to detect possible infection in an asymptomatic individual, helping in prioritising the conventional testing queue as well as in risk assessment of an asymptomatic individual to establish if he/she can become symptomatic apart from assistance in risk assessment of an asymptomatic individual for recovery.

The clinical trials and regulatory proceedings for Lyfas Coved Score are expected to be completed by the end of September, after which the testing facility will be made available for the general public.