Speaker 1: Welcome to Prognosis. I'm Laura Carlson. It's day three since
Speaker 1: coronavirus was declared a global pandemic. Today's main story. New
Speaker 1: technology promises it can spot early COVID nineteen symptoms simply
Speaker 1: by listening to the sound of someone's voice. But first,
Speaker 1: here's what happened in virus moons today. President Joe Biden's
Speaker 1: pushed for another large COVID nineteen relief package got some
Speaker 1: help today. A surprisingly weak January employment report helped make
Speaker 1: the case for substantial aid, and the Senate took action
Speaker 1: to smooth the legislative path for his proposal. Private sector
Speaker 1: payrolls barely grew in January, while the restaurant and lodging
Speaker 1: sector log almost six hundred thousand in job losses over
Speaker 1: the past two months. That's according to the monthly jobs
Speaker 1: report from the Labor Department out today. While the jobless
Speaker 1: rate dipped to six point three percent, that was partly
Speaker 1: because some Americans gave up looking for work. The United
Speaker 1: Kingdom said it plans to offer everyone over the age
Speaker 1: of fifty a first dose of coronavirus vaccine by May.
Speaker 1: It's the first time that Boris Johnson's government has set
Speaker 1: a target for the next stage of its vaccination program.
Speaker 1: The plan was included in an announcement that also said
Speaker 1: local and mayoral elections will go ahead on May six,
Speaker 1: after they were delayed by a year due to the pandemic. Finally,
Speaker 1: a study has found a surprisingly strong indicator of whether
Speaker 1: someone infected with COVID nineteen has a higher risk of
Speaker 1: severe disease and death. That indicator is whether they've had
Speaker 1: pneumonia in the past. According to researchers at Harvard University,
Speaker 1: a prior episode of pneumonia was the second greatest overall
Speaker 1: risk factor for death from COVID nineteen. The study showed.
Speaker 1: The researchers pointed out that by itself, a single pneumonia
Speaker 1: case probably doesn't put someone at high risk. It's more
Speaker 1: likely to be an indicator of underlying chronic disease that's
Speaker 1: gone undiagnosed. And now for today's main story. When we're
Speaker 1: coming down with a cold, or are feeling a bit stressed,
Speaker 1: or perhaps even exhibiting the first symptoms of COVID nineteen,
Speaker 1: minute changes to our voice are often one of the
Speaker 1: first indicators that something is wrong. These vocal bio markers
Speaker 1: are often beyond what a human can detect, But what
Speaker 1: if an app on your phone could. Health reporter Michelle
Speaker 1: fack Cortez recently spoke to David Luke, CEO of sound Health,
Speaker 1: which is released an app that uses a person's voice
Speaker 1: to detect early symptoms of respiratory illnesses, including COVID nineteen.
Speaker 1: I asked Michelle what vocal bio markers can tell us.
Speaker 1: You recently had a chance to speak with the CEO
Speaker 1: of sound Health, which is released an app called sold one.
Speaker 1: I was wondering if you could tell us a bit
Speaker 1: about this app and how it relates to COVID nineteen.
Speaker 1: This app is looking for vocal bio markers indications that
Speaker 1: you might be actively infected with coronavirus and that the
Speaker 1: illness could be having an impact on your voice. It
Speaker 1: is something that is relatively easy to use. It's something
Speaker 1: that's being adopted by companies and schools and other outlets
Speaker 1: as a way to get an early heads up on
Speaker 1: potential risk. David Leeu is the CEO of sound Health,
Speaker 1: and he laid out how it works for us. Song
Speaker 1: One is a app based product that can be downloaded
Speaker 1: from any smartphone with that that app, you're able to
Speaker 1: record six seconds of voice and we can give you
Speaker 1: then a reading on your risk for having symptoms of
Speaker 1: respiratory disease like COVID nineteen. In terms of how this
Speaker 1: app can actually detect whether or not you have COVID
Speaker 1: nineteen or another respiratory illness, I mean, how exactly is
Speaker 1: it doing that through your voice? Your voice is an
Speaker 1: integral part of you, and you know from your own
Speaker 1: personal experience listening to your loved ones and people that
Speaker 1: you know well, sometimes you can tell if somebody is
Speaker 1: not feeling great, if there might be something going on
Speaker 1: with them in terms of illness or perhaps anxiety or stress.
Speaker 1: We're talking about things like the patterns in the rhythms,
Speaker 1: the will intonation, any kind of variation in that process
Speaker 1: is what they're looking for. And as you do it
Speaker 1: over and over again, the app can get better at
Speaker 1: knowing your own individual patterns comparing that to yourself and
Speaker 1: to other people. David laid out for us the way
Speaker 1: that it works. Bio Markers are any any information that
Speaker 1: is given off by the body. Could be your come
Speaker 1: from blood, could be come from saliva, your your heart rate. Um.
Speaker 1: These are signals that are coming from your body that
Speaker 1: can be measured right and can be recorded, and so
Speaker 1: vocal bio markers are field that has really begun to
Speaker 1: grow and explode in the last five years, I would say,
Speaker 1: so it's fairly new when used in the health context.
Speaker 1: Our company son has has already launched vocal bio markers
Speaker 1: for detection of mental health conditions such as depression and
Speaker 1: now respiratory illness. There are other companies in the space
Speaker 1: stead of also UH used vocal bio markers for other
Speaker 1: health conditions. So what is the science or you know,
Speaker 1: the research that underpins this app How have they constructed
Speaker 1: away that something on your phone can detect symptoms of
Speaker 1: an illness or even COVID nineteen. There has been some
Speaker 1: research done on this in order to determine how effective
Speaker 1: the approaches. But of course it's important to realize this
Speaker 1: isn't something that's approved by the Food and Drug Administration,
Speaker 1: and you're ensurre isn't going to pay for it, but
Speaker 1: it is an early indicator of potential danger. You can
Speaker 1: think of it kind of like a thermometer or your
Speaker 1: mom putting her hand on your forehead to see if
Speaker 1: there's something going on with a layer of science and
Speaker 1: technology on top of that. Really drilling down into the details.
Speaker 1: You need to have a lot of experience and a
Speaker 1: lot of data to have been and to have studied
Speaker 1: this data. Voice data that is health condition labeled, meaning
Speaker 1: we have now over a million voice samples that we
Speaker 1: have collected and studied must have confirmed labels stating that
Speaker 1: this person had the disease or the the health condition,
Speaker 1: and so they've been diagnosed with that condition, and then
Speaker 1: we study their voice from there. We also study people's
Speaker 1: voices who are completely healthy and we compare those those voices.
Speaker 1: When you have that larger volume of data, you're then
Speaker 1: able to look at different groups of people men, women, uh,
Speaker 1: You're able to look at different ages of people, different devices.
Speaker 1: So many things come into consideration when you're analyzing voice.
Speaker 1: When we're looking at different health conditions, then we can
Speaker 1: zero in, for example, in respiratory disease or even depression,
Speaker 1: we can zero in on the vocal features that are
Speaker 1: most sensitive to change when somebody displays a symptom of
Speaker 1: that disease. And again we are not diagnosing for disease.
Speaker 1: We are comply monitoring and detecting the change in your voice.
Speaker 1: Vocal features that are not able to be picked up
Speaker 1: by the human ear, such as prosody, such as tonality,
Speaker 1: even breaks and speech um. There are so many of
Speaker 1: these vocal features that we do examine and put into
Speaker 1: our machine learning models that help us then predict based
Speaker 1: upon the data, who might have who has a higher
Speaker 1: probability of having these symptoms of disease versus people who
Speaker 1: are completely fine. Just to be clear, this is something
Speaker 1: that can only pick up symptoms when you're already manifesting
Speaker 1: symptoms of COVID nineteen or another respiratory illness. This isn't
Speaker 1: something that could pick up whether or not you have
Speaker 1: COVID nineteen if you happen to be asymptomatic. It's not
Speaker 1: a diagnostic. It doesn't tell you that you are definitively
Speaker 1: infected with coronavirus. But it is another layer, another indicator
Speaker 1: that could help well determine if they are at risk.
Speaker 1: The company is not claiming that it is something that
Speaker 1: should be used in order to determine who is safe
Speaker 1: for high risk situations in terms of you know, visiting
Speaker 1: friends and family, are going to a nursing home, flying,
Speaker 1: that sort of a thing. But it is another piece
Speaker 1: of the puzzle. You know, we've been focusing on COVID nineteen,
Speaker 1: but what else can these types of apps like so
Speaker 1: on one detect using these vocal bio markers. Previous research
Speaker 1: has looked at vocal bio markers for indications of other
Speaker 1: potential health conditions, most specifically mental health issues like anxiety
Speaker 1: and depression. Those are areas where we do get a
Speaker 1: lot of change that happens, that comes through your voice.
Speaker 1: Sometimes looking intently at that particular piece can give you
Speaker 1: in it into how you're feeling and where your health
Speaker 1: is going. I'm wondering about some of the potential risks
Speaker 1: or problems. I mean, being able to speak into your
Speaker 1: phone and it tell you whether or not you have
Speaker 1: symptoms of either COVID nineteen or just a respiratory illness
Speaker 1: could be very useful, but what are the risks, say
Speaker 1: I'm thinking of um in terms of either patient privacy
Speaker 1: or just misdiagnosis. Privacy and misdiagnosis are actually critical issues,
Speaker 1: especially in this period of time that we're in right now.
Speaker 1: Everyone is talking about privacy across every platform as we're
Speaker 1: all interacting with each other online, but there are absolutely
Speaker 1: issues about where this information is going, especially because in
Speaker 1: many cases it's employers or other organizations that are gathering
Speaker 1: this information. There is room for things to go sideways. Now, Michelle,
Speaker 1: you've actually have the opportunity to try out sound one
Speaker 1: for yourself. Walk us through what the process is of
Speaker 1: of using the app. So I downloaded the app this morning,
Speaker 1: and I used a key that the company gave me
Speaker 1: full disclosure, and I answered a couple of questions including
Speaker 1: my email address, my gender, my birthdate, and now I'm
Speaker 1: ready to give it a shot. All right, walk us through,
Speaker 1: you know, submitting a vocal sample. Here we go. So
Speaker 1: I'm looking at a screen. It says sound one tap
Speaker 1: here to get started inside concentric white circles. It's loading.
Speaker 1: You have a questionnaire and a voice activity to complete.
Speaker 1: My voice does feel a little scratchy today, so we'll
Speaker 1: see how that goes. I definitely feel healthy, though, and
Speaker 1: I have been pretty much in my basement for the
Speaker 1: last month, so I don't think I'm high risk. Here
Speaker 1: in this activity, I want you to take a breath
Speaker 1: and hold the vowel sound ah like in the word father.
Speaker 1: Please hold that sound for six seconds or until you
Speaker 1: run out of breath, let's begin. Uh wof, I got
Speaker 1: it done. That's a little bit harder than I thought. Okay,
Speaker 1: my health score, I'm a low risk, I'm a fifty
Speaker 1: means that today's score is in your normal range. And
Speaker 1: now I'm getting my screening results. Sounds like you're feeling okay.
Speaker 1: Watch for COVID nineteen symptoms and call your medical provider
Speaker 1: if any symptoms develop. Follow your local and state public
Speaker 1: health guidelines to keep yourself and others safe. So it
Speaker 1: occurs to me, Laura, that part of the benefit of
Speaker 1: a screening like this is that you just literally have
Speaker 1: somebody every day walking through the process of thinking about
Speaker 1: how they're feeling. Do I feel hot? Did I sleep poorly?
Speaker 1: Am I losing my sense of taste or smell? Those
Speaker 1: are things we should all be asking ourselves, but I
Speaker 1: don't know that we do it intentionally every day. So
Speaker 1: if you do have an app that's walking you through this,
Speaker 1: that could be a big part of the benefit right there,
Speaker 1: regardless of what you learn from your vocal bio markers.
Speaker 1: That was Michelle fa Cortez and that's it for our
Speaker 1: show today. For coverage of the outbreak from one twenty
Speaker 1: bureaus around the world. Visit bloomberg dot com, slash Coronavirus,
Speaker 1: and if you like the show, please leave us a
Speaker 1: review and a rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It's
Speaker 1: the best way to help more listeners find our global reporting.
Speaker 1: The Prognosis Daily edition is produced by tophor Forheas, Magnus
Speaker 1: Hendrickson and me Laura Carlson. Today's main story was reported
Speaker 1: by Michelle fay Cortez. Original music by Leo Sidran. Our
Speaker 1: editors are Rick Shine and Francesco Leady. Francesco Levi is
Speaker 1: Bloomberg's head of podcasts. Thanks for listening well.