A new smartphone app can predict who is at risk of being hospitalized with heart failure simply by listening to their voice.
The AI-powered app detects subtle changes in users’ voices that could indicate increasing fluid intake in the lungs – a sign of heart failure.
The more obvious signs of heart failure usually only appear a few days before hospitalization or cardiac arrest.
But in a study of hundreds of older people with heart failure, the HearO app was able to predict who would deteriorate and require hospitalization three weeks before it happened.
The app was correct 76 percent of the time. It has already received breakthrough device designation, which means accelerated approval by the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA), and is on track to receive approval in 2024.
Patients are asked to speak six sentences every morning in the app called Hearo. An AI algorithm then analyzes their speech for symptoms of impending heart failure
Speech can be affected by fluid in the lungs, swelling of the soft tissues and vocal tract, and swelling of the vocal cords. Fluid in the lungs causes the patient to produce less air and clogs the airways, which muffles the voice
The Ohio State University researchers who developed the app say the extended warning gives doctors time to start preventive treatment and could save lives.
One in four Americans will develop heart failure during their lifetime, and approximately 6.7 million Americans over the age of 20 are living with the condition, and the number is expected to increase to 8.5 million Americans by 2030.
Heart failure occurs when the heart muscle cannot pump enough blood to meet the body’s needs for blood and oxygen.
This can cause fatigue, fluid retention, shortness of breath and sometimes excessive coughing.
If left untreated, fatal cardiac arrest can occur.
Dr. William Abraham, lead author of the study and professor of medicine, physiology and cell biology at Ohio State University, said his colleagues heard changes in patients’ voices when they went to the hospital with pulmonary edema — an abnormal buildup of fluid. in the lungs came the lungs. .
Fluid in the lungs causes the patient to produce less air and clogs the airways, causing a person’s voice to sound muffled.
Speech can be affected by fluid buildup as it causes swelling of the vocal cords and swelling of the soft tissues and vocal tract.
The researchers wanted to know if the changes in their patients’ voices were noticeable earlier, since doctors may not communicate with their patients every day.
“The lungs are the energy generator of language,” said Dr. Abraham tells reporters at the American Heart Association conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
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Every morning, patients are asked to use their phone and speak six sentences into the app called HearO.
The data is then uploaded to a data-secure cloud-based system where it is analyzed and the “AI magic” happens.
The patient acts as their own controller and the app alerts the patient’s doctor if a significant change from the patient’s baseline voice occurs that may indicate or predict worsening heart failure.
One study enrolled 416 adults in Israel diagnosed with heart failure to test how well the app worked.
The participants were an older group of heart failure patients who were clinically stable but at risk of worsening their condition. based on previous heart failure and hospitalizations.
There were more than 250,000 voice recordings evaluated by the app’s AI system to create a prediction algorithm.
In total, there were 72 cases of heart failure in the study and the AI was able to predict initial hospitalizations with an accuracy of 81 percent.
A heart failure event was defined as a patient’s heart failure worsening to the point of requiring hospitalization.
Overall, the app detected about 76 percent of imminent or future cases of heart failure.
Most importantly, the report predicted an average of 24 days before the patient needed to be hospitalized.
This presents “many opportunities for medical interventions that may allow us to maintain the health of these patients and prevent future hospitalizations for heart failure or the need for intravenous diuretic therapy when treating these patients,” said Dr. Abraham.
Dr. Abraham told DailyMail.com that the technology is far superior to that of a human doctor.
He said: “The doctor should wait until there are visible signs or symptoms of worsening heart failure.” This approach detects it before these signs and symptoms appear.
“Normally [visible] Signs and symptoms [of heart failure] develops only two to three days before hospital admission. Here we get a three-week warning.”
The application is currently being tested in a Phase III clinical trial.
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Crystal Leahy is an author and health journalist who writes for The Fashion Vibes. With a background in health and wellness, Crystal has a passion for helping people live their best lives through healthy habits and lifestyles.
