What You Should Know
- The Partnership: Canary Speech, a leader in vocal biomarker technology, has partnered with Intermountain Ventures (the innovation arm of Intermountain Health) to launch a groundbreaking study.
- The Goal: The study aims to identify Multiple Sclerosis (MS) using vocal biomarkers. It is the first IRB-approved study of its kind to explore whether subtle vocal patterns analyzed by AI can reveal early indicators of the disease.
- The Impact: Current MS diagnosis is invasive and slow, often involving MRI scans and lumbar punctures. If successful, this AI-driven voice analysis could offer a non-invasive, accessible screening tool, enabling earlier detection for the 2.9 million people affected worldwide.
The “Passive Listening” Revolution
The company has previously deployed its “passive listening” technology to identify neurodegenerative diseases like Huntington’s, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s. The core technology captures and analyzes speech data in real-time to detect behavioral and cognitive changes. By applying this same engine to MS, Canary aims to catch the disease in its earliest stages, where timely intervention is critical to halting central nervous system damage.
“Partnering on this critical study will hopefully allow us to screen for MS earlier and improve the quality of care for millions of patients,” said Henry O’Connell, co-founder and CEO of Canary Speech.
