By Naama Barak
The voice processing startup Cordio Medical of Israel announced that its HearO app successfully predicted 82 percent of early cases of congestive heart failure in patients participating in a study.
On average, the app predicted it about 18 days before the health incident occurred.
The study collected 460.000 voice samples from 180 patients at ten medical centers in Israel.
Participants used the HearO app at home and sent a voice sample once a day in Hebrew, Arabic, or Russian.
The company reported an 82 percent success rate and noted that one-third of the 18 percent misdiagnosis rate was related to sounds of other respiratory illnesses.
Congestive heart failure occurs when the heart does not pump blood properly, which in turn can cause fluid to build up in the lungs.
The HearO system detects this accumulation in a person's speech and alerts them to a future cardiac episode.
“The study results indicate our potential to become a standard in the field of early detection of heart failure,” said Dr. Ronit Haviv, senior vice president of clinical management, quality assurance and regulatory at Cordio Medical.
According to Haviv, the solution is easy and convenient to use for any patient – “even the most elderly” – and it has already been proven that its level of precision is the same as that of a medical-grade solution.
For Dr. Tuvia Ben Gal, director of the heart failure unit in the cardiology department at Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tikva, the idea is that Cordio's HearO system will significantly help both heart failure patients and health care providers who administer your treatments.
“The implementation of the system will help reduce heavy workloads in clinics and allow doctors to focus on those patients who need treatment,” Ben Gal added.
The company received approval from the Israeli Ministry of Health and CE approval from the European Union.
By the end of 2023, it hopes to receive approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to be able to enter the US market in 2024.
Source: ISRAEL21c