What if your smartphone could detect your cough and report the condition of your lungs? Sounds like something out of the future, don’t you think? But a startup in Hyderabad has made it a reality.
An artificial intelligence-based programme called Swaasa analyses human coughs to find any type of abnormalities in the lungs, with a claimed accuracy of 90%. The programme aids in the early detection of lung infections and disorders with the use of additional information such as the patient’s medical history, temperature, and vitals.
Venkat Yechuri, Narayana Rao Sripada, and Manmohan Jain founded Salcit Technologies in 2017 after realising the need for an AI-based sound analysis solution that primarily addresses lung health.
“We recognised the idea’s potential and necessity at the exact moment it was being formed. The Better India quotes Manmohan, co-founder of Salcit Technologies, as saying, “We were captivated by what it may represent for the healthcare sector.
With partners such as Apollo, Piramal Swasthaya, Andhra Medical College in Visakhapatnam, and AIIMS in Delhi, the platform has already completed over 3 million assessments.
Manmohan and Venkat, friends who worked at Zensar Technologies, created the interface, and Narayana, the idea’s creator, was asked to serve as an advisor on a project funded by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
“Throughout the investigation, I spoke with academics and PhD candidates who were investigating heart and lung sounds. To ascertain the prevalence of underlying illnesses, we first focused on the acoustics of heart and lung sounds before reducing the scope to cough sounds, according to Narayana.
“After speaking with Dr. Ananta Krishnan from the AIIMS, I was persuaded that there was a gap in the market for screening software, particularly in rural areas. In remote and rural health facilities, it is virtually impossible to arrange a spirometry test (a pulmonary function test). We required an easy-to-implement technique to assess lung health. This turned into the motivation of Swaasa,” he says.
Narayana quit his job and launched Salcit Technologies in 2017 with Venkat and Manmohan on board. He describes the software’s operation by saying, “To find out how healthy your lungs are, you must cough into your phone. The software analyses the cough using imaging sound waves, and within 15 seconds it will reveal any potential lung abnormalities. One can see a specialist if any exist.
Venkat continues, “The cough spells are symmetric for asthma while they gradually get worse for pneumonia. Therefore, in the case of asthma, the brilliant yellow patches or energies do not change over time, however in the case of pneumonia, they do. The basis of our strategy is cough physics.
“For decades, the idea of using cough as a biomarker to identify health conditions has existed. However, very few people have used that knowledge to create a product, according to Narayana.
The distinction in their approach, according to Narayana, is that while there are technologies like Google Fit that also assess a person’s health and check their vitals, there is nothing especially devoted to lung health.
