Visakhapatnam: Identifying respiratory disease a 'cough' away

Visakhapatnam: With Artificial Intelligence making strides in healthcare, an advanced study on cough analysis aims at spotting respiratory diseases early and providing tailored medical intervention to patients.

Making use of technology, the study focussing on 'evaluation of Swaasa AI platform for lung health assessment in a primary healthcare setting' is a non-invasive analysis that involves recording of cough from the patients and analysing its pattern.

Carried out by Andhra Medical College (AMC) in collaboration with the Department of Community Medicine and Salcit Technologies, the research is conducted as a part of the project 'CommedSwaasa' that would last for a few months.

With a team of investigators and volunteers analysing and capturing the audio of the cough, the research is being led by Principal Investigator and Principal of AMC P V Sudhakar at Covid Suraksha Centre at Rural Health Training Centre (RHTC) in Simhachalam.

The platform analyses cough signals along with a subset of symptoms, identifying the problem attributable to airways or lung parenchyma/pleura and providing appropriate assessment.

As the existing methods of diagnosis such as X-Ray, CT scan and pulmonary tests (routine sputum culture and spirometry) require laboratory setup and are time-consuming as well as expensive exercise, the new non-invasive technology intends to bring healthcare closer to the patients, especially to those in rural and tribal regions.

Sharing details of the research, Dr Sudhakar says, the cough analysis is completely non-invasive and cost-effective. "Cough will act as a tool to analyse whether the patient has tuberculosis, bronchitis, pneumonia or Covid-19. It would be a major breakthrough in healthcare if we could differentiate the problem by studying the cough pattern of the patient. Based on the analysis thus made, appropriate medical intervention will be provided to the patient," elaborates the AMC Principal.

Apparently, the advanced study, the AMC Principal says, would go a long way in encouraging the scientific fervour and research activities in AMC.

The study would take another three to four months to generate desired results. Already, data of 20 samples of cough have been collected for the research from the patients and the investigators mention that they would study 500 or 1,000 more samples before coming to a conclusion.