An international team of scientists and public health professionals developed a cough monitoring smartphone app, Hyfe, which is seeing its technology integrated into research in Spain in collaboration with the University of Navarra and involving more than 800 participants.
The first time research in epidemiology will be done with the integration of artificial intelligence technology and cough detection smartphone applications. This method of digital cough monitoring for early detection of a respiratory disease outbreak at the community level has never been performed in research settings.
The trial is taking place in the city of Pamplona, Spain, and the municipalities around the area like Zizur Mayor, and Cendea de Cizur. Participants are monitoring their nighttime cough patterns with the use of the Hyfe smartphone app.
The partnership of Hyfe with the University of Navarra, Montreal University Hospital Center, and Zizur’s Health Center revolves around the identification of digital study of cough monitoring that can predict the incidence of respiratory diseases and possible future appearance of the outbreak.
Hyfe is an artificial intelligence platform that detects and tracks coughs as they happen in real-time through wearable or smartphone devices. The software platform of the company includes machine learning algorithms to accurately detect cough and frequency in an accurate manner, before the use of acoustic analysis to help the detection and diagnosis of respiratory illnesses.
All those that participate in the research trial fully agreed that their medical data be reviewed periodically throughout the course of the trial. From the basic analysis, the incidence of cough or respiratory-associated diseases can be established.
Hyfe co-founder and CEO Joe Brew said: “COVID-19 has taught us that the old way of doing epidemic surveillance and monitoring is simply not good enough. For health systems to effectively stay ahead of rapidly changing realities, both at the patient level as well as the population level, we need to enlist novel methods, novel sensors, and novel approaches. The trial in Navarra is the first ever to implement the concept of “acoustic syndromic surveillance” in real-world settings. I’m confident we’ll look back on this as a pivotal moment in global health history.”
