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Dave Levitan, editor of the limbic UK
You’re heading to the ballroom or the main hall, just in time for the conference’s plenary session to begin, when your mobile buzzes in your pocket. You take a look: your temperature is up to 38.2°C, an app declares. You are feeling a bit flushed, now that you consider it. And reluctantly, you head back the way you came, away from the gathering crowd.
This scenario isn’t actually all that far off. As another season’s worth of medical, scientific, and many other conferences once again announce plans to remain virtual, the question has arisen as to what, exactly, the meetings of the future might look like. In the US, one conference might be offering up an idea.
The American College of Cardiology’s 70th Annual Scientific Session & Expo (ACC.21), which is being held from 15-17 May, is experimenting with a hybrid in-person/virtual meeting. They have a series of health and safety measures in place, but they have also partnered with BioIntelliSense, makers of a wearable device that might warn you of an increasing fever as you head to the Plenary, and can give a “Not Cleared” warning at the start of a day telling you to stay in your room.
The BioButton COVID-19 Screening Solution is a “coin-sized” device capable of continuous monitoring of the wearer’s temperature, respiratory rate, and heart rate. At ACC.21, attendees can volunteer to wear one of the devices, theoretically improving the chances of catching a COVID-19 infection before it might spread to others.
The company argues that spot checks for fever, along with the reasonable chance of a negative PCR test for the virus within the first four days of infection, can miss many people. The BioButton’s continuous monitoring, meanwhile, along with “advanced analytics,” can supposedly fill those gaps.
ACC.21 is the first major conference to use this approach; perhaps not coincidentally, it is also among the only major conferences scheduled for the next several months that has eschewed the all-virtual program.
An ACC spokesperson told the limbic that while the usual annual meeting draws about 18,000 people, this year will feature “significantly smaller in-person attendance” in order to allow for social distancing and other measures. The number of attendees who might choose to wear the BioButton is not yet available, the spokesperson said.