If a cold front is forecast we pack a jacket.
For those with epilepsy, the ability to predict a seizure would make life easier to plan for, and medication and its side effects easier to manage.
In a three-year study at Boston Children’s Hospital, 69 epilepsy patients wore a sensor band on either wrist or ankle.
Heart rate, body temperature and data on the short-term decline of the skin’s electrical line resistance were recorded.
Patients were also monitored by EEG video. Using the data an algorithm was developed through deep learning techniques.
New seizures could be predicted in 43% of patients. This figure increased when more data was added.
Though still under development the wristbands give plenty of reason for hope.
