Cough, cough… your doctor is waiting on the phone

Although symptoms differ among illnesses, everyone with a respiratory condition has a cough. Now you can cough at your smartphone and learn what’s wrong with you. 

An Australian start-up called ResApp has trained software that can be added to your smartphone to recognize subtle differences among coughs accompanying respiratory diseases. When you cough into your phone, the software will recognize the cough’s distinctive characteristics and give you a probable diagnosis. 

In tests of 1,800 adults and children, the software got it right more than 90 percent of the time. 
 
The software grew out of a desire to speed diagnoses of pneumonia in children. Doctors wanted a diagnostic tool that would work on the spot, avoiding lab tests and body scans that can take days to return a judgment.

The developers are preparing for clinical trials in the United States, where the app will be available initially only to medical-care providers.

TRENDPOST: As artificial intelligence and machine learning become more capable and speedy, they will take over more and more routine medical tasks such as monitoring conditions, assaying lab samples and making simple diagnoses. Replacing humans with smart machines will slow growth in the cost of medical care.