Your diagnosis is just a cough away with Google's new AI model

By -
Your diagnosis is just a cough away with Google's new AI model
A team of Google scientists has developed an artificial intelligence (AI) model capable of diagnosing diseases by analysing a person’s coughing and breathing sounds.

This year, the tech giant introduced Health Acoustic Representations, or HeAR — a bioacoustic foundation model — to help researchers build models that can analyse sound patterns and produce health insights.

The HeAR model, currently available for researchers, has been trained using “300 million pieces of audio data curated from a diverse and de-identified dataset,” and “roughly 100 million cough sounds.”

It captures meaningful patterns in health-related acoustic data and creates a powerful foundation for medical audio analysis, the Google Research Team said, ranking this AI system higher than other models on a wide range of tasks and for generalising across microphones.

An India-based respiratory healthcare company — Salcit Technologies — has designed Swassa, an AI-powered tool that assesses lung health by analysing cough sounds.

The company is planning to integrate HeAR into Swaasa which can help extend its capabilities. To start with, they are using Google’s AI system to enhance its ability to detect TB early.

“Every missed case of TB (tuberculosis) is a tragedy; every late diagnosis, a heartbreak,” says Sujay Kakarmath, a product manager at Google Research working on HeAR. “Acoustic biomarkers offer the potential to rewrite this narrative. I am deeply grateful for the role HeAR can play in this transformative journey.”

Despite being curable, TB often goes undiagnosed due to limited access to affordable healthcare. Researchers believe that AI can play an important role in improving detection and helping make care more accessible and affordable for people around the world.

With HeAR, the India-based healthcare company sees an opportunity to extend screening for TB more widely across India.

Google is also partnering with organisations like the Stop TB Partnership to bring together experts and affected communities with a goal to end TB by 2030.

“Solutions like HeAR will enable AI-powered acoustic analysis to break new ground in tuberculosis screening and detection, offering a potentially low-impact, accessible tool to those who need it most," said Zhi Zhen Qin, digital health specialist with the Stop TB Partnership.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

At least 11 dead, others injured after train catches fire near Rahim Yar Khan

By Admin -
Image
At least 11 passengers lost their lives and 30 others sustained burn injuries when three carriages of a Tezgam Express caught fire due to explosion in a gas stove, according to initial reports. Meanwhile, firefighters have initiated a rescue operation to extinguish the fire and other passengers are being evacuated from the train to safe places. The affected carriages are being separated from the train. The train, Tezgam, was on its way from Karachi to Rawalpindi, when a gas cylinder carried by a passenger exploded, leaving several dead and injured. The fire was caused by the explosion in a gas cylinder, confirmed the Pakistan Railways official. According to details, the passengers were cooking breakfast when the gas cylinder exploded. After the blast, the raging fire engulfed two other coaches as well. Fire fighters were still extinguishing the fire as per last reports.
Read more

Three soldiers martyred in terrorist attack on checkpost in Balochistan’s Zarghoon

By -
Image
As many as three soldiers embraced martyrdom and one terrorist was killed in an exchange of fire between security forces and terrorists in Zarghun, the area of Balochistan on Saturday. According to the military’s media wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), an operation was launched in the area against suspected terrorists who attacked a security post. “Troops on the post retaliated readily to the fire raid thereby, pushing back the terrorists,” stated the military’s media wing. In the ensuing exchange of fire, three soldiers were martyred while one terrorist was also killed. The military identified the martyred soldiers as Sepoy Zaheer Ahmed, Sepoy Mudassir Shaheed and Lance Naik Abdul Qadeer. The ISPR stated that the post had recently been established to “check extortion efforts targeting coal mines in the area”. “Based on follow-up ISR effort, likely hideout of fleeing terrorists has been identified in nearby mountains and a deliberate blocking and sanitisation op...
Read more

Legal process to try May 9 planners, perpetrators under army act begins: COAS

By -
Image
Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Asim Munir has said that the legal process of trial against planners, instigators, abettors and perpetrators involved in the May 9 mayhem has commenced under Pakistan Army Act and Official Secret Act as per existing and established legal procedures derived from the Constitution. The army chief's statement came as he visited Jinnah House and an army installation in Lahore, which were blatantly attacked and vandalised by “politically motivated” rioters, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a handout. The COAS was also given a briefing on events of May 9 dubbed by the military as ‘Black Day’ — the day when Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) supporters ransacked and torched military installations across the country following the arrest of their leader Imran Khan in a graft case. Addressing the garrison officers and soldiers at Corps Headquarters, Gen Munir emphasised that any action aimed at widening a gulf between people and the milita...
Read more