The rapidly developing area of technology and artificial intelligence (AI) within respiratory medicine and science was under the spotlight at this year’s European Respiratory Society (ERS) Congress, including the use of voice recording technology in identifying chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbations.
A trial showing vocal changes recorded on a smartphone can signal the start of a COPD exacerbation was among the research presented under the Congress’s humans and machines theme.
In the prospective cohort study, patients with COPD were asked to record their voices via a smartphone app every day for 12 weeks and also complete a daily report on any COPD symptoms.
Using the app, patients recorded themselves saying ‘aah’ for as long as they could manage in one breath and then either read a short paragraph of a story or answer a question.
A total of 11 COPD patients completed the daily report and voice tasks, equating to 1,691 voice recordings in total.
During the 12-week study, there were 16 occasions when a patient experienced a COPD exacerbation, six of which were treated.
Analysis found specific speech features were significantly different at the onset and peak of a COPD exacerbation. Patients’ voices became higher pitched when an exacerbation was imminent, and voices also become more breathy or hoarse when an exacerbation was beginning.
Lead author Loes van Bemmel, a researcher in the department of respiratory medicine at Maastricht University Medical Centre in the Netherlands, said these preliminary results needed to be validated in larger numbers of patients with COPD.
‘If we are able to do this, it would pave the way for early detection and diagnosis of exacerbations in the home environment. This would enable patients to manage these events themselves at home,’ she said.
‘While every disease is different, speech analysis could potentially help in other respiratory diseases as well. We suspect there are speech biomarkers for many respiratory diseases.’
ERS Congress co-chair Professor Judith Löffler-Ragg said the research presented at this year’s event under the theme of ‘Humans and machines: getting the balance right’, including this COPD study, was pioneering and should guide future developments.
‘It is extremely important that we view developments in technology, and specifically AI, with an open mind but also a critical eye,’ she said.
‘Our vision is to advance personalised medicine through the responsible use of AI, continuously improving respiratory medicine.’
