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AI uses voice biomarkers to predict heart diseases

What Happened?

Researchers from Mayo Clinic have used artificial intelligence to discover and test what a voice can reveal about a patient’s heart health . Training an AI with specific vocal biomarkers predicts which patients are more likely to have clogged arteries that lead to further heart problems.

Why is this important?

Voice biomarkers could detect coronary artery disease before symptoms appear by monitoring changes in a person’s voice over time using artificial intelligence (AI) technology developed by a team at Mayo Clinic’s campus in Jacksonville. The team was able to predict coronary artery disease outcomes in patients given an initial voice screening. Afterward, they were followed for several years and compared to patients with a low vocal biomarker score at baseline. Patients with high vocal biomarker scores had higher odds of having severe chest pain or coronary issues that sent them to the hospital or the emergency department as well as positive stress tests or confirmed coronary artery blockage during follow-up testing. Although still in the research stages the team says AI voice analysis technology could be a low-cost non-invasive digital health tool to monitor a patient’s risk of coronary artery blockage over time from just about anywhere as previous research has shown that AI can help detect overlooked heart problems such as heart attacks in people who had no prior symptoms.