Worried you have Covid-19? Now a smartphone app can detect if you've been infected
Called ResApp Health, the mobile application uses machine learning to analyse your cough sounds and was found to correctly detect Covid-19 in 92 per cent of people with the infection during the testing phase.
FollowAlthough the Covid-19 pandemic might be under control, fears of another mutant followed by a possible wave continue to loom large. However, to make detection more convenient, scientists have developed a smartphone app to detect whether you've been infected with the novel coronavirus.
Called ResApp Health, the mobile application uses machine learning to analyse your cough sounds. According to reports, the app was found to correctly detect Covid-19 in 92 per cent of people with the infection during the testing phase.
"The sheer scale of this global pandemic and the likely evolution to an endemic disease means we need more scalable diagnostic tools that can balance our current over-reliance on rapid antigen and PCR tests," said Professor Catherine Bennett, a member of ResApp's Covid-19 Scientific Advisory Board.
"By rapidly ruling out Covid-19, ResApp's COVID-19 test would significantly reduce the number of rapid antigen and PCR tests required while still maintaining the disease surveillance needed to manage the continued impact of Covid-19," she added.
To test ResApp, the developers enrolled 741 patients in the United States and India, including 446 infected with Covid-19. The participants filled out a survey on any symptoms they experienced and coughed into a smartphone that had the app installed.
The results revealed that ResApp detected the virus in 92 per cent of people infected with Covid-19. In comparison, lateral flow tests can reportedly detect only 72 per cent of symptomatic cases and 58 per cent of asymptomatic ones.
In the follow-up tests, the scientists also checked if ResApp is specific to Covid-19 by testing it with coughs from 1,007 patients with other respiratory disorders, including pneumonia, asthma, respiratory infections, etc. The results revealed that the app could accurately detect Covid-19 with 90 per cent specificity.
According to the developers, ResApp will initially be used in settings where frequent Covid-19 testing is needed, including while travelling, sporting events, entertainment hubs, etc.
"The simplicity, ease of use and unlimited scalability of ResApp's test will be welcomed by public health officials around the world," Professor Bennett added.
"We are very excited about these preliminary results for detecting Covid-19 using cough audio recorded on a smartphone," Tony Keating, CEO and Managing Director of ResApp, stated.
"These algorithms offer a unique opportunity to provide a rule out screening test for Covid-19 at scale across the world, reducing the distribution challenge, the cost and the environmental impact of rapid antigen and PCR testing," he added.
"The WHO have recently warned that the pandemic is not over, that health systems globally continue to strain under the current caseload and that we should be prepared for the potential of more dangerous variants to emerge," Keating noted.
"We intend to accelerate commercialisation by immediately engaging with regulators globally and we have already commenced discussions with global health and technology companies with the goal of rapidly bringing this product to market. These results also build our confidence in the development of patient management and monitoring tools for COVID-19 and expanding our research into long COVID," Keating concluded.
Pharmaceutical companies have already shown tremendous interest in the app. Last week, Pfizer offered to acquire ResApp for $0.115 per share in cash, representing a total equity value of approximately $74.3 million.
