Diagnosis and treatment of respiratory diseases achieved with smart devices

Collection of health information through wearable devices

Even if non-face-to-face treatment is permitted and activated, if diagnosis and monitoring are only possible during times of meeting with a doctor, as is the case now, a shortage of medical personnel may become a problem. It can be a big problem if the condition of a seriously ill patient worsens while waiting for non-face-to-face treatment. How can these problems be solved in a large-scale respiratory infectious disease epidemic?

Lately, it has become possible to collect health information, check risk signals, and respond to them through wearable devices in daily life. For example, just as arrhythmia patients can self-diagnose and respond to dangerous situations through smart watches and wearable devices that monitor heart rate and measure electrocardiogram, such real-life respiratory health monitoring is becoming possible for respiratory diseases.

Not only is coughing the most important symptom of respiratory disease, but it also means that it is possible to diagnose the disease by analyzing the acoustic signal of the coughing sound. Previously, it was understood that the barking cough pattern of certain diseases, such as croup, was helpful in diagnosis, but analyzing actual coughing sounds can provide doctors with more information than what they can hear with their ears. In particular, it is possible to apply this in reality with the development of the Internet of Things and wearable devices, real-time large-scale information transmission, and the development of analysis technology through artificial intelligence.

Respiratory health revealed through coughing sounds

Hanyang University Hospital, along with the College of Engineering, developed a technology to diagnose pneumonia using only the coughing sounds of patients who visited the hospital with a cough through artificial intelligence-based acoustic analysis. Diagnosis of respiratory diseases through cough sound analysis can be very useful in situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

It can be used not only to diagnose COVID-19, but also to determine whether it is progressing to pneumonia and to select seriously ill patients. Early detection and management of patients with severe respiratory diseases among many patients at patient’s home or in medical facilities such as the residential treatment center, or nursing hospital will contribute to efficient use of medical resources and lower mortality rate.

In addition to analyzing cough characteristics, monitoring the frequency of coughing can help determine whether the patient is improving or worsening. Just as each individual’s voice is different, you can tell who is speaking even if you say the same word or sentence, coughing also shows different acoustic fingerprints for each individual, it is possible to monitor one specific person even in a room where several people stay.

By applying a smart watch or a wearable device may enable monitoring respiratory health indoors and outdoors 24-hour a day. In addition to collecting health information through coughing, various types of wearable devices, such as patch types attached to the chest, waist belts, and necklaces have been developed, and attempts are being made to assess respiratory health by collecting and analyzing information related to breathing.

Devices that collect breathing sounds on a regular basis, like a doctor listening the breathing sounds during inspiration and exhalation through a stethoscope, through an electronic stethoscope or patch, diagnose respiratory diseases such as asthma through abnormal breathing sounds, or detect worsening at an early stage and inform patients and doctors of dangerous situations have already been developed and are in the commercialization stage.

In the future, respiratory disease diagnosis and monitoring technology that integrates various clinical signals and diagnostic test results through the Internet of Things is expected to be further developed. COVID-19 has become an opportunity for digital smart innovation technology to develop further, and expectations for respiratory health management through this are growing further.

Hanyang University Medical Centre

Professor of Respiratory Allergy Kim Sang-hyeon