Visakhapatnam: 'Swaasa AI' wraps up clinical validation

Visakhapatnam: Deputy High Commissioner of the UK to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana Andrew Fleming paid a visit to the Government Hospital of Chest and Communicable Diseases - a teaching hospital under Andhra Medical College here on Saturday. He interacted with the faculty, who had successfully completed clinical validation of 'Swaasa AI' (Artificial Intelligence) platform that aids in detecting Covid-19 and tuberculosis through the analysis of cough sounds.

As the existing methods of diagnosis such as X-Ray, CT scan, pulmonary tests (routine sputum culture and spirometry) require laboratory set-up and are time consuming and expensive exercise, the new non-invasive technology intends to bring healthcare closer to patients. Appreciating the promising results achieved under an aggressive timeline, Dr Andrew Fleming said he was looking forward to implementation of the solution in near future.

The project was undertaken with an objective to develop a point of care Covid-19 and TB triaging, monitoring, and surveillance solution using functional (sound) information collected from the lungs, and advanced AI technology.

The non-invasive intervention analyses cough signals along with a subset of symptoms, identifying the problem attributable to airways or lung parenchyma/pleura and providing appropriate assessment. Funded by the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) through C-CAMP (India's premier life sciences innovation hub), the CTRI registered clinical studies were conducted by the faculty of the Andhra Medical College at King George Hospital and Government Hospital of Chest and Communicable Diseases.