The Predi-COVID Cohort study, led by Dr Guy Fagherazzi of the Luxembourg Institute of Health, showed for the first time that vocal recordings of COVID-19 affected people could be used to monitor related symptoms of the disease.
Via a press release, the Luxembourg Institute of Health announced on Monday a new biomarker-based technology which could become a simple way for healthcare practitioners to provide at risk-patients with immediate help, relieving burdens on the healthcare system.
This recent study is the first to use spoken voice recordings, as opposed to coughing or breathing, from various devices, and in a real world environment to identify COVID-19-related symptoms. In the future, healthcare practitioners will be able to use this technology to screen patients as well as track the progression of their symptoms via remote monitoring, through non-invasive instruments like your smartphone! using cheap and non-invasive tools like smartphones.
This pioneering technology could also be a practical solution for monitoring Long COVID patients over an extended period in order to anticipate the evolution of their symptoms.
“Such a vocal biomarker could be integrated into future telemonitoring solutions, digital devices, or in clinical practice. It offers an easily available, non-invasive tool to collect data that can be used from home. This could revolutionise the way patients are monitored, treated, and offer a much needed solution to relieve the burden from our healthcare systems,” concludes Dr Fagherazzi.
