A host of companies are looking at cough apps to detect the presence of COVID-19. But one company called Hyfe wants to take the idea a step further and use them to detect future pandemics, reports Richard Staines.

The pandemic has seen a plethora of digital tools emerge to help manage patients remotely, with the ubiquitous use of smartphone technology allowing medics to monitor patients’ vital signs without risky face-to-face contact.

There have also been some creative uses of smartphone technology – including investigations into whether apps could be used to identify telltale signs of COVID just from a cough.

Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) found that a neural network was 100% effective in correctly diagnosing COVID-19 in people with no symptoms but who tested positive for the virus – although the false positive rate was about 17%.

More recently a cough app called Hyfe, which could be used to diagnose COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases, launched in the UK.

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