Voice biomarker monitoring technology shows promise for maintaining mental and cognitive health in military personnel
BOSTON, Aug. 28, 2024–( BUSINESS WIRE )–Today, at the Military Health System Research Symposium (MHSRS) in Kissimmee, Florida, Sonde Health announced interim results from a collaborative research study on the effectiveness of using voice biomarkers to detect cognitive impairment in older adults.
A pilot study conducted in collaboration with Massachusetts General Hospital validated Sonde Cognitive Fitness's ability to accurately detect symptoms of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia in older adults in a non-clinical setting. These results add to a growing body of research demonstrating the effectiveness of voice biomarkers to identify meaningful changes in health status. Additionally, high user engagement and satisfaction suggest great potential for widespread adoption of voice-based health monitoring technology.
“Understanding changes in cognitive and mental health is essential to drive timely interventions, give people time to access new treatments, and optimize performance. It is especially important for the military to ensure the highest operational readiness and health of their warfighters,” said Eric Larsen, senior vice president of clinical development and customer success at Sonde Health. “Our research shows that voice biomarkers provide a reliable solution for monitoring changes in health, including those associated with depression, anxiety, PTSD and cognitive impairment. Equally important, our voice biomarker monitoring technology is unobtrusive and engaging, making it easy to integrate into daily routines and recovery programs.”
Over a four-week period, study participants aged 54-84, including both cognitively normal and cognitively impaired volunteers, completed speech tasks of varying cognitive difficulty using a smartphone app at home. Sonde Cognitive Fitness then analyzed users' speech biomarkers and generated a simple score ranging from 0 to 100. Users with lower scores in the range were twice as likely to be assessed as having very mild or mild dementia compared to those with higher scores.
Another study, published in March in the peer-reviewed journal Frontiers in Psychiatry, found that Sonde's technology could reliably identify individuals with severe mental illness symptoms: In the study, subjects were twice as likely to report severe mental illness symptoms if their mental health voice biomarker scores remained in the “attention” range over a two-week period compared to if their scores remained in the “excellent” range.
Mental and cognitive fitness assessments are based on a similar set of vocal measurements, making their combined use particularly useful in the military setting.
These results have sparked interest in Sonde Health's voice-based health monitoring technology, particularly for military personnel. The company was recently awarded a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research contract through AFWERX to advance its mental fitness technology specifically for military use. Sonde will integrate and evaluate the tool within the Air Force's mental health and resilience program to validate its effectiveness and scalability across the Department of Defense.
To learn more about how Sonde's voice biomarker platform leverages voice-enabled apps and devices to assess and improve mental, cognitive and respiratory health, please visit https://www.sondehealth.com/
About Sonde Health
Sonde Health is a global leader in voice-based health tracking and data analytics. Sonde's voice biomarker API/SDKs are used in enterprise apps and devices spanning consumer to population health. Leveraging best-in-class voice datasets and clinical research with 1.2M+ samples from 85,000+ individuals across four continents, Sonde uses advanced audio signal processing, speech science and AI/machine learning to sense and analyze subtle voice changes due to shifts in a person's physiology to provide critical insights into health and well-being. www.sondehealth.com
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