Medical alert systems have
been around for some time. Often, they're wearable devices that can detect
when you fall, and alert emergency personnel if it senses you aren't
responding. But what happens if you aren't wearing a device, or if you
aren't experiencing any triggering signs or symptoms of a medical emergency at
all?
In the future, your home's voice assistant may
be able to recognize when you're having a heart attack by listening in for
critical indicators like abnormal breathing and gasping sounds.
That's according to researchers at the
University of Washington who found that around half of people experiencing a
heart attack made sounds known as agonal breathing. The group of researchers
developed an early stage artificial-intelligence tool that could be baked into
smart speakers or smartphones to listen out for warning signs.
The technology could then be used to alert
emergency personnel, the researchers said. The study was published in the peer-reviewed journal
NPJ Digital Medicine on Wednesday.
“We envision a contactless system that works
by continuously and passively monitoring the bedroom for an agonal breathing
event, and alerts anyone nearby to come provide CPR," said Shyam
Gollakota, who co-authored the research and works as an associate professor at
the University of Washington.
The researchers gathered 162 clips of the
abnormal breathing patterns from recorded 911 calls. They found the sounds
could be detected by a wide array of smart devices including Amazon Alexa, an
iPhone 5s and Samsung Galaxy S4.
“It’s sort of a guttural gasping noise, and
its uniqueness makes it a good audio biomarker to use to identify if someone is
experiencing a cardiac arrest," said Jacob Sunshine, an assistant
professor of anesthesiology and pain medicine at the UW School of Medicine.
“This kind of breathing happens when a patient experiences really low oxygen
levels."
The tool, which the team says could be a
downloadable app, works 97% percent of the time. An April 2019 study found
that a majority of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occur when people are
alone in their bedrooms or living rooms.
Still, there's more work and research to be
done before the heart attack detecting technology is commercialized.
“We don’t want to alert either emergency
services or loved ones unnecessarily, so it’s important that we reduce our
false positive rate,” said Justin Chan, a doctoral student who first authored
the research.
The next step is for the technology to pass
through Sound Life Sciences, a Seattle-based startup that builds
medical software for mobile phones and smart speakers. Gollakota is Sound Life
Science's CEO.
Some wearable tech devices can already detect
irregular heartbeats. Apple released an FDA-cleared
ECG app that works with the Apple Watch Series 4 in 2018. While
it may spot a heart problem, experts say more work is needed to
tell if using wearable technology to screen for heart problems really helps.
Follow Dalvin Brown on Twitter: @Dalvin_Brown.
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