This Wednesday was presented in Portugal a new application that allows you to calculate the risk of type 2 diabetes through the voice. Just say a simple phrase to the mobile phone.
There is an application capable of detect type 2 diabetes through the voice.
On the sidelines of the AI Medical Conference, which took place on Wednesday at the Champalimaud Foundation in Lisbon, the investigator responsible for the discovery, Yan Fossathe showed journalists how, with some data such as gender, age, height and weight, the application can calculate the likelihood of having diabetes after saying in English the phrase “Hello how are you? What is my glucose level now?”.
According to the scientist, diabetes, like other diseases, damages the body, in this case the vocal cords, and causes Voice changesall impossible to detect by the human ear, but which are identified by the technology used in the application.
With the use of automatic learning, artificial intelligence and signal analysis, Klick Labs scientists have developed a predictive model that “is essentially a ‘software’ that Take a new voice and say whether or not this person is likely to be diabetic”.
More effective in women than in men
Second Yan Fossat, or system is 89% reliable for women and 86% in men. The difference is due to the fact that the changes in the voice are different in men and women: in women it causes a fluctuation in the fundamental frequency of the voice, while in men change the modulation of amplitude.
Asked if this technology could be applied to other diseases, the researcher said that the team has already published two studies that confirm that it works for the hypertension – and another that detects ovulation in women.
The Klick Labs team has a mobile phone application, but to make ‘software’ more accessible and more global has decided to develop an API (Application Programming Interface).
With this ‘software’, just make a call to a server. Each company or institution can build its application or ‘website’ and send the voice through an API call receiving the answer back.
Although technology is still in the investigation phase and is not being used at the clinical level, Klick Labs vice president has been confident that one day it will be possible, with one call, detect a panoply of diseases.
Regarding the difficulties that were guessed so that this voice technology is indeed democratized, Fossat said that “the barrier is just the time.”
Time to investigate – “This is science, so it advances at the speed of science” – and time to regulate – as it is a medical device, different authorizations are required for different countries.
More than one million diabetics in Portugal
The World Health Organization estimates that 830 million lived in 2022 with diabetes, a disease that causes blindness, kidney failure, strokes, stroke and lower limb amputations.
In Portugal, about 75,000 people were diagnosed with diabetes in 2023, raising to more than 900,000 the total diabetics recorded in primary health care, the highest value ever in the country.
The data are contained in the 2024 report of the National Program for Diabetes (PND) of the Directorate-General for Health (DGS), according to which, taking into account the high number of people who are unaware of their diagnosis, they should exist More than one million Portuguese with diabetes.
