Perth, Joodalup Health Campus (JHC) of Ramsay Health Care
Technology developed by University of Queensland researchers that analyses a person's cough could help diagnose respiratory disorders quickly and easily in patients who lack access to doctors. UQ biomedical engineer Associate Professor Udantha Abeyratne and his team have developed the diagnostic technology that uses smartphones to instantly identify common respiratory disorders like asthma, croup, pneumonia, lower respiratory tract disease, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and bronchiolitis. A clinical study on childhood respiratory diseases found the technology had an accuracy of between 81 and 97 per cent. Dr Abeyratne said respiratory disease was the third leading cause of death, meaning the potential global health and economic impact of this technology was phenomenal. "Coughs can be described as wet or dry, brassy or raspy, ringing or barking; they can whistle, whoop or wheeze; but experts cannot always agree on the description or how to use cough sounds for diagnosis," Dr Abeyratne said. "Our approach is to introduce signal processing, and machine classification and learning technologies to extract useful diagnostic characteristics from coughs, removing the subjective elements for characterising them. "We believe the technology can lead to earlier diagnosis and better patient outcomes throughout the world, including in remote locations with limited access to doctors." Corresponding author, Paediatrician Dr Paul Porter from Joondalup Health Campus in Western Australia, said it could be difficult to differentiate between respiratory disorders in children, even for experienced doctors in modern hospital facilities.
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