Baker and The Alfred hospital test AI tool to detect decline in heart health

Melbourne researchers have developed Artificial Intelligence software that may soon be able to analyse users’ voices to help predict their risk of suffering heart failure.

Artificial Intelligence may soon be used to detect declining heart failure by listening to how people speak on their smartphone.

Researchers from the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute and The Alfred hospital have developed AI software they hope can accurately analyse a patient’s breathlessness and disease severity through a quick weekly phone call from the comfort of their own home.

It will also be a bonus for people living in rural and regional areas who often have difficulties accessing regional care.

David Kaye, who heads the new Monash Alfred Baker Centre for Cardiovascular Research at The Alfred Research precinct, says the team is recruiting 200 Australians with heart failure to be part of the trial to test the software.

He says the tool has already been tested in a small study that involved a one-off voice recording.

“It showed good correlation between symptoms and voice change,” Professor Kaye said.

Volunteers on the trial will be asked to record their voice for a minute once a week. Picture: iStock

One Australian dies every three hours from heart failure — a condition where the heart is not pumping blood around the body as well as it should.

It is a condition that affects more than 300,000 Australians and causes about 180 people to be hospitalised every day.

Shortness of breath is the most common symptom, so the team is seeking cheap, user-friendly and accurate ways to monitor it regularly without the need for frequent visits to a GP.

Professor Kaye said volunteers on the study would be asked to use an app on their mobile phone, developed by the centre’s clinicians in collaboration with software engineers. It will record their voice for one minute a week, which will then be analysed using AI.

“Our aim is to help people with chronic heart failure access an easier and cheaper home-monitoring tool that can save lives and enhance quality of life,” Professor Kaye said.

“We think this tool could be particularly useful for people in rural and remote areas where there may be less opportunity to see clinicians or cardiologists.

Heart failure causes about 180 people to being hospitalised every day in Australia. Picture: Supplied

“AI may also assist in identifying more subtle signs of deterioration and respiratory changes which might not be audible by humans or might be missed by less experienced clinicians.”

He says if people develop heart failure it needs to be managed well or it can result in multiple hospital admissions and complications.

“Heart failure can damage your liver or kidneys and can lead to pulmonary hypertension or other heart conditions, such as an irregular heartbeat, heart valve disease and sudden cardiac arrest.” Professor Kaye said.

To help validate the new tool, the researchers are calling for people aged over 18 who have been diagnosed with heart failure to consider joining the AI breathlessness study.

Professor Kaye said participants would be asked to download an app on their smartphone and record their voice for a minute every week for up to 52 weeks. No clinic visit is required.

To join, contact the trial co-ordinators at [e-mail] or for more details, visit https://baker.edu.au/research/clinical-trials/ai-breathlessness-study.