dVoice Study: Discovering voice-based biomarkers for the onset of Alzheimer's Disease

Evidation Health Inc., the Framingham Heart Study, and MIT's CSAIL lab are collaborating to identify and understand a potential voice-based biomarker to detect the onset of Alzheimers Disease, as well as Mild Cognitive Impairment, which is  often a precursor to Alzheimers Disease.

Currently, there are few tools available to provide early insight into the onset of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). As AD therapy research focuses on identifying earlier stages of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and more recently “pre-MCI”, the sensitivity of measurement tools to detect subtler changes in cognition has become critical. 

We have access to a rare longitudinal dataset (multi-generation) of recorded voice sessions, and medical records with diagnoses and physician notes, that follows patients through a decade of their lives. We are a team of experts in Alzheimer’s and cognitive decline research, digital signal processing, natural language processing, and machine-learned methods of digital biomarker development and validation. 

The impact of a voice based digital biomarker could impact research, treatment, and care for patients in significant ways. 

If successful, this innovation has the potential to provide valuable insight to researchers pursuing early interventions and treatments to delay or even reverse the disease’s devastating effects on patients. The ubiquitous accessibility of a voice based digital biomarker would be broadly distributable to hundreds of millions of people in an easy and convenient manner.