NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Indian-origin researchers have developed a new health sensing tool that can accurately measure lung function over a simple phone call made with any phone — not just smartphone — from anywhere in the world.

The findings could be of special help for people in the developing world — who have asthma, cystic fibrosis or other chronic lung diseases — know how well their lungs are functioning without visiting a doctor or a clinic, which in some places can take days of travel.

“We wanted to be able to measure lung function on any type of phone you might encounter around the world — smartphones, dumb phones, landlines, pay phones,” said Shwetak Patel, professor at the University of Washington.

The new tool is called SpiroCall.