New health-sensing tool ‘can assess lung function with a phone call’

Scientists from the University of Washington have developed a new health-sensing tool using a simple phone call.

The SpiroCall tool allows users to call a number and exhale hard into the phone receiver, which senses sound and pressure and sends the data to a central server. Machine learning algorithms convert this data into standard measurements of lung function.

Unlike the team's previous SpiroSmart offering, this new tool is not app-based and does not require a smartphone to use. Results over a standard mobile phone voice channel were shown to be within 6.2 percent of test results from a commercial spirometer.

Efforts are also being made to produce a 3D-printed whistle, to be used in conjunction with SpiroCall, that changes pitch when the patient exhales. This would be ideal for very ill patients whose vocal cords cannot produce enough sound for a phone microphone to pick up.

The study's lead author Mayank Goel, a University of Washington computer science and engineering doctoral student, said: "There's a real need to have a device that allows patients to accurately monitor their condition at home without having to constantly visit a medical clinic, which in some places requires hours or days of travel."