Cough diagnosis by phone?

Cough analysis by phone? Researchers developed a cough hotline to distinguish cough types.

13/02/2011

Researchers at the Oldenburg Fraunhofer Institute have developed a software that can be used to analyze the type of coughing by telephone. Affected persons can call a free hotline and cough vigorously into the telephone receiver. Then an automated voice tells you what kind of cough is going on. However, health experts criticize this type of telephone cough analysis. Patients may be led to greatly reduced self-diagnoses.

Scientists at the Oldenburg Fraunhofer Institute have developed specialized software that can detect the type of cough that is due to the nature of the cough. In a self-test we called the free cough phone. At the beginning, a friendly voice calls for coughing vigorously and several times at a distance of 30 centimeters from the telephone receiver. After that receive like the diagnosis: „Unfortunately we could not clearly identify her cough. But get advice from a doctor or pharmacist. This can reliably allocate the cough.“ The remote diagnosis did not work in our case. However, there was no cough in our subject.

Different kind of cough „make aware“
The developers say it is about giving the callers a first assessment of their cough, to alert them to the existence of different types of cough. The cough-up phone was developed by the Fraunhofer Institute of the Department of Digital Media Technology. The client is the pharmaceutical manufacturer „Boehringer Ingelheim“. Do not want to replace a doctor's visit with this phone offer, however, according to a recent survey study about half of the people in Germany would not know that there are different types of cough, said one of the developers of the hotline. However, the system can only detect two types of cough. A distinction is made between the dry irritated cough and the productive cough with expectoration. If the cough can not be clearly identified, the caller will be informed, as in our case, that no assessment can take place.

Recordings of coughing sounds
To design the software, researchers have spent more than two years participating in scientific cough research projects. To make the diagnostic capability, the developers have taken pictures of pedestrians in the pedestrian zone in Hamburg and Oldenburg. In addition, pictures were taken at a lung specialist. Thereafter, the various cough features were categorized to allow the software to distinguish and recognize the types of cough. If the caller coughs into the phone, the features can now be determined acoustically. The operators say that the system can make a correct assessment in about 80 percent. At the beginning of the project in November last year, a maximum of 20 to 30 callers a day called. "In fact, around 200 people are calling every day." reports Stefan Goetze from the Fraunhofer Institute, who developed the hotline with three other project participants.

Health experts are skeptical
Although it is pointed out during the automated telephone call that the remote analysis can not replace a doctor's visit or a trip to the pharmacist, doctors are still skeptical about this offer. "I think the cough phone is more problematic because the cough characteristic is too dependent on various factors such as age, weight, gender and constantly changing accordingly," said the chairman of the family doctors association in Lower Saxony, Dr. med. med. Heinz Jarmatz opposite „RP Online“. In addition, the expert criticized that the caller is seduced by such a telephone service more for self-diagnostics. That was only conditionally good. Only a doctor can accurately assess the cough and evaluate the health of the patient accurately. In any case, the physician would not recommend the Hustenhotline to his own patients.

Cough in natural medicine
It should be noted that coughing is a natural process to rid the respiratory tract of irritants, contaminants and foreign bodies. Coughing can be harmless but also serious. If coughing persists for several days or weeks, a professional diagnosis should be made to rule out serious illnesses. The modern, naturopathic therapy provides next to the affected organ, the body's defense in the focus of treatment. Here, various natural remedies are used, such as. Intestinal rehabilitation, diversion procedures and nutritional and regulatory therapy. Depending on the trigger, acupuncture, bioresonance therapy and homeopathy are also used. (Sb).

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Picture: S. Hofschlaeger