Therma Bright Inc (TSX-V:THRM, OTC:TBRIF) has announced that it is preparing to launch DCT, its digital cough data collection and screening smartphone applications, along with AI4LYF.
The company said that follows its acquisition of the exclusive worldwide licensing rights to market and sell products based on AI4LYF's Digital Cough Technology (DCT).
It explained that the proprietary mobile app is an artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled software application that can be used by individuals to record and collect cough sounds anywhere, at any time, by using a smartphone. Using AI-machine learning technology, DCT can detect the subtle and specific signatures of a variety of respiratory diseases through changes in cough features, it added.
READ: Therma Bright inks exclusive license agreement for AI4LYF's Digital Cough Technology to detect respiratory diseases
"Initially Therma Bright will make the smartphone application available through healthcare practitioners to be used as a general educational tool, so individuals become more aware of the nature and frequency of their cough,” AI4LYF founder Dr Ali Imran said in a statement. “In the second phase, cough samples will be collected from patients with confirmed respiratory diseases.”
Therma Bright noted that in preliminary studies completed by AI4LYF, the team was able to accurately identify subjects with certain respiratory conditions from their cough sounds, which validated the robustness of the AI machine learning technology.
The companies said several studies by other researchers have shown that cough severity is correlated with disease activity in asthma and a range of other respiratory diseases, making cough sounds an attractive biomarker candidate for respiratory disease severity. Out of these respiratory diseases, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) alone affects more than 300 million people around the world.
"Although coughing is traditionally quantified via self- or parent-reporting in the form of questionnaires, the technological advances made by AI4LYF will allow for more sophisticated and more accurate cough monitoring and analysis methods," Imran added.
Therma Bright CEO Rob Fia commented: “After discussions with United States Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) experts, Therma Bright and AI4LYF intend to finalize launch plans in the United States and Canada to initiate large scale collection of cough sounds from the general population.”
"The ultimate goal is to develop a mobile app that can identify different types of respiratory conditions solely from the cough sounds,” Fia added.
Fia said the first phase will allow Therma Bright and AI4LYF to collect large amounts of longitudinal population data that will be used to optimize AI4LYF's AI machine learning engine, which will lead to an inexpensive, accessible tool to help physicians accurately screen and monitor patients with respiratory conditions or diseases.
"This application will provide significant benefits to individuals who want to learn more about their cough and will become an indispensable tool in everyday clinical practice for respiratory diseases,” Fia concluded.
Therma Bright is a developer and partner in a range of leading-edge, proprietary diagnostic and medical device technologies focused on providing consumers and medical professionals with quality, innovative solutions that address some of today's most important medical and healthcare challenges.
Contact the author at stephen.gunnion@proactiveinvestors.com