ResApp is a new smartphone app designed to diagnose respiratory problems with a cough from the user.
Tony Keating, the CEO, managing director and only employee for ResApp, tells The Australian his technology has been tested at Joondalup Hospital in Western Australia and achieved a 96 percent accuracy rating in diagnosing pneumonia and a 90 percent rating in diagnosing asthma during testing in Indonesia.
According to Keating, the app enables users to cough into a smartphone’s microphone from up to two meters. The app’s algorithms, developed at the University of Queensland, then analyze the cough, looking for cues that match the cough to such diseases as asthma, pneumonia and bronchitis.
“Our levels of accuracy are comparable not just to a doctor listening to a stethoscope but a doctor listening to a stethoscope then sending you off to an X-ray, looking at that those X-rays and even looking at the response to antibiotics for example to get a final clinical diagnosis,” he told The Australian. “We skip the X-ray altogether; we’re breaking the model of health consultations.”
