AI Cough-Monitoring Can Change the Way We Diagnose Disease

How many times do you cough a day? Do you cough more when you’re indoors or outside? Or more often after you eat? Or at night? Chances are, your cough memory might not be that accurate. But all of that information about your coughing patterns could be an untapped resource to better understand your health. Coughs may be benign ways to clear a little extra phlegm, or they could be early signs of more serious conditions such as asthma, GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease), or even lung cancer. “In the era of precision health, it’s ironic that such a problematic symptom is simply unmeasured,” says Peter Small, chief medical officer at Hyfe AI, a company that boasts a database of more than 700 million cough samples, the largest in the world, that researchers are analyzing for potential medical use. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] There is power in cough information, and the ubiquity of cell phones and wearables with recording devices mean that apps can increasingly capture and analyze that data. Companies like Google Health see even basic information such as getting an accurate count of the number of times a person coughs a day as a useful resource, and part of a larger need to collect and chronicle more health information to refine the way doctors diagnose disease and manage treatments in the future. “It’s a sea change to have a common device, the smartphone, which everyone has sitting by their bedside or in their pocket, to help...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized healthscienceclimate Technology Source Type: news