Texas-based FibroGenesis plans to use the Apple Watch in its study of PneumoBlast cell therapy for patients with Covid-19.

The regenerative medicine company will incorporate key features of the Apple Watch to improve and extend outcomes of PneumoBlast as a potential Covid-19 therapy.

FibroGenesis focuses on tissue regeneration and chronic disease reversal using human dermal fibroblasts (HDFs). It is incorporating the Apple Watch to monitor patients through the course of global studies using PneumoBlast for the treatment of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in patients affected by Covid-19.

The Apple Watch will be integrated into FibroGenesis FibroTap trial analytics platform, a proprietary online platform developed as a follow-up tool for clinical studies, with the goal to track and continuously monitor in real time, physiological signals from the Apple Watch. The signals will make it possible to identify patients who may be falling ill or developing adverse events and enabling rapid intervention by medical staff.

Researchers at FibroGenesis will benefit from Apple Watch measurements, including SpO₂ and VO₂ Max along with traditional clinical assessments, to monitor patients after the 28-day study completion and throughout the course of their daily life after discharge from the hospital.

By having participants monitored with the Apple Watch, as well as traditional respiratory panel tests and other clinical data, researchers can look for early indications of respiratory diseases and expand upon the recent FibroGenesis data that support the potential benefits of PneumoBlast for preventing Covid-19 lung scarring and blood clotting.

“The FibroTap online platform will enable further assessments using technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning applied to the data extracted from measurements using Apple Watch during the course of PneumoBlast clinical studies, in order to support advanced scientific insights,” said Pete O’Heeron, FibroGenesis chief executive officer “Paulo Ferraz, our clinical innovation advisor, and his team in Brazil will use input from this platform to recommend future product development that addresses areas of unmet needs and reduce the time from clinical research to commercialisation.”

Based in Houston, Texas, FibroGenesis is a regenerative medicine company developing innovations for chronic disease treatment using human dermal fibroblasts. It holds 258 US and international issued patents and patents pending across various clinical pathways, including disc degeneration, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, cancer, diabetes, liver failure and heart failure.