Changes in voice patterns for monitoring heart failure deterioration

Figure 1. HearO application.

Heart failure (HF) affects >6 million adults in the United States1 and 26 million worldwide2, at a cost of over $30 billion in the United States alone3. Pulmonary congestion is the predominant factor leading to hospitalisation for HF patients, and also is a major contributor to poor outcomes after hospital discharge. A need exists for a simple, non-invasive approach to detecting worsening pulmonary congestion at an early stage for the management of HF patients. In the context of pulmonary congestion, it has been proposed that the fluid overload may be detected by distinctly altered phonation patterns. A ...