If your child has a cough that will not go away, then it is best for you to take them to the doctor. That is not always possible because many areas have a physician shortage. Fortunately, there is a new app that can help you determine the type of cough that your child has. The app was created by Associate Professor Udantha Abeyratne and Dr. Paul Porter.
They gathered data from children who were between the ages of 29 days and 12-years-old. There were 1,437 children involved in the study. All of the children suffered from a respiratory ailment. The scientists were able to create an app that recognized the distinct coughing sounds. It can tell whether the cough comes from croup, bronchiolitis, pneumonia and asthma.
The app was tested on 585 children. The accuracy of the app ranged from 81 to 97 percent. The researchers will still need to do a lot more work on the app before they release it to the public. However, they are hoping that the app will soon be available to parents who do not have access to healthcare facilities in their area. It can also be used by doctors who can diagnose patients remotely. Additionally, physicians can use this app while they are diagnosing patients in their office.
Dr. Porter stated that it can be even difficult for distinguished doctors to distinguish the different coughs in children. He also said that the results of the study can be used to produce better diagnostic tools in the future. The results of the study were also published in a journal called “Respiratory Research.”
There is a similar app that was created by a team of scientists in Japan. The name of the app is the Respiratory Sounds Visualizer. It diagnoses respiratory illnesses by listening to the sounds of a person’s breathing.
Source: https://newatlas.com/child-cough-phone-app/60026/
