Can Your Voice Really Predict Your Risk For Coronary Heart Disease?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), coronary artery disease impacts 18.2 million Americans aged 20 and older. Now, a collaboration between researchers from the Mayo Clinic and the University of Tel Aviv in Israel has discovered that by analyzing your voice, artificial intelligence can determine your risk of coronary artery disease and subsequent complications such as chest pain and heart attacks (per Medical News Today).

The technology depends on a database of voice samples remotely collected via a mobile application. The process is cost-effective, non-invasive, and can serve as a preliminary way of identifying whether or not patients need to be given more attention as to the possibility of coronary artery disease. Dr. Jaskanwal Deep Singh Sara, study co-author and research fellow at Mayo Clinic, says the technology won't replace doctors or any methods of healthcare delivery, but that the tool is intuitive and enjoyable for patients.

The role voice analysis could play in healthcare

According to an editorial published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, researcher Dr. Alan Sugrue said that the future of voice analysis and human health is full of promising opportunities, especially considering the boom of telehealth. He says that integrating voice analysis into these platforms like smartphones would be an easy feat. Through the use of artificial intelligence, a patient's voice and fluctuations could be used to see if there's a correlation between any changes in voice and possible onsets of subacute or acute diseases.

Dr. Sara told Medical News Today that voice biomarkers and linguistic vocal patterns are associated with cardiovascular health, neurologic health, psychiatric diseases, and COVID-19. Sara also said that bringing voice signal analysis, artificial intelligence, and machine-based learning together is "an exciting and innovative solution to the growing demand for telemedicine."

Exciting as it may be, the study does have its limitations. Voice samples were initially collected from people in Israel and the study used samples from people in the Midwest region of the United States. More research needs to be conducted to see if findings can be applied to other demographics.