Smartphone app uses cough sounds to diagnose respiratory disease

ResApp Health Limited, a digital health company producing smartphone applications for the diagnosis and management of respiratory disease, has begun enrolling participants in a study evaluating the feasibility of an app in the diagnosis of pediatric respiratory disease from cough sounds.

SMARTCOUGH-C-2, a multi-site and double-blind study, enrolled 1,667 patient ages 29 days to 12 years who had come into one of three site presenting symptoms of respiratory diseases. The app used for evaluation is based on machine learning algorithms and uses cough sounds to diagnose and rate the severity of respiratory conditions.

The aim of the study is to present a positive and negative agreement to clinical diagnosis of  pneumonia, lower respiratory tract disease, viral lower respiratory tract infection, bronchiolitis, asthma/reactive airways disease, upper respiratory tract disease and croup.

“We are excited to begin the study and take this important next step towards the commercialization of ResAppDx in the United States,” said Tony Keating, CEO and managing director of ResApp. “The refined study protocol, developed in close collaboration with the principal investigators at the recruiting sites, includes major improvements over our previous study in the United States and we look forward to obtaining results which are a true representation of ResAppDx’s performance in mid-2018.”