ResApp Health is trialling a smartphone app to diagnose Covid through sound of coughing

A Brisbane digital health start-up wants to shake-up the way we test for Covid-19 with the trial of a smartphone app which will diagnose the disease through the sound of your cough.

ResApp Health is trialling a smartphone application that can diagnose Covid-19.

A Brisbane digital health start-up is on the way to the commercialisation of a smartphone application which will use the sound of your coughing to diagnose Covid-19.

ASX-listed ResApp Health is preparing for talks with regulators after positive results on the technology for screening before the use of a rapid antigen (RAT) or PCR test.

Dr Tony Keating, who founded the company in 2015 with Brian Leedman, says trials found the app could detect Covid in 92 per cent of people with the infection through the use of cough audio and patient-reported symptoms.

“The Covid tests are still in the early trial stages but we have had great results,” he says.

“Basically the way we’ve designed the test is that of it says No and you don’t have Covid, you don’t have to do a RAT or a PCR test but if it says YES then you go down the normal path of testing.”

A Covid test that only requires a smartphone would significantly reduce the number of RAT or PCR tests required, improving availability, reducing costs, and reducing environmental impact.

ResApp Health managing director Dr Tony Keating.

A smartphone-based test also has the ability to improve security and reporting of results to employees and other group by using biometric identification such as facial recognition.

The technology is based on research by University of Queensland Associate Professor Udantha Abeyratne whose work was funded through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

That work led to ResApp Health winning regulatory approval and then the commercialisation of the initial research which enabled the detection of asthma, pneumonia and other respiratory conditions by coughing through the telehealth service used by doctors working remotely.

When the pandemic hit the company started working on new algorithms for the technology to diagnose Covid through a smartphone.

Keating says it’s too early to say when the smartphone app will be available.

“We’re talking to pharmaceutical companies, tech companies, government and any number of big organisations who can help us bring this technology to everyone’s home,” he says.