Skip to main content
AAO-HNSF 2023 Annual Meeting & OTO Experience Main banner
Icon Legend
This session is not in your schedule.
This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it.

Business of Medicine/Practice Management

Voice as a Biomarker in Health Tech: Mapping the Current Landscape

Tuesday, October 3, 2023
5:15 PM - 5:21 PM East Coast USA Time
Location: 106A

    Presenting Author(s)

  • Emily G. Evangelista, MS

    3rd Year Medical Student
    University of South Florida
    Tampa, FL, United States

    • Senior Author(s)

  • yael Bensoussan, MD

    Assistant Professor
    Department of Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA
    Tampa, FL, United States

    • Co-Author(s)

  • MN

    Matthew R. Naunheim, MD, MBA

    Assistant Professor
    Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary/Harvard Medical School
    Boston, MA, United States

  • MP

    Maria E. Powell, PhD, CCC-SLP

    Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery
    Vanderbilt University Medical Center
    Nashville, Tennessee, United States

  • Jean-Christophe Bélisle-Pipon, PhD

    Assistant Professor in Health Ethics
    Simon Fraser University
    Burnaby, BC, Canada

Disclosure(s):
Emily G. Evangelista, MS: No relevant relationships to disclose.
Introduction: The vocal biomarkers market was worth USD 1.9B in 2021 and is projected to exceed USD 5.1B by 2028. The growth rate of scientific and monetary investment demonstrates a blossoming interest in voice data for use in clinical application of AI relating to a variety of pathologies. The objective of this study was to map the current landscape of voice as a biomarker in health-tech start-ups.

Methods: To characterize the market, a scoping review was performed using PubMed, Cochrane, and IEEE databases with specific keywords pertaining to voice as a biomarker of health. Searches were also conducted using Google, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. For inclusion, articles must have been published in English prior to Jan 2023 and include content about start-ups involving products using human sound to benefit patient health. The search aimed to investigate the identity, mission, finances, publications, and products of each start-up. Crunchbase was used to collect financial and organizational information.

Results: 33 companies were identified for analysis: 10 used voice as a biomarker of respiratory disease, 10 for neurological diseases, 9 for mood disorders, 5 for voice disorders, and 1 for cardiovascular disease. There are 23 companies with 27 products on the market and 10 companies with products in the research and development pipeline. Available products primarily pertain to voice collection and analysis for psychiatric health (56%). 14 startups (42%) had scientific publications related to their products for a total of 81 articles. At least USD 136.9M in investments were reported by 27 of these companies, primarily between 2016–2023 (funding not reported by six startups). The majority of funding came from venture capital companies and research grants.

Conclusions: There is growing enthusiasm surrounding voice as a biomarker in health-tech. Academic scientific drive may complement private commercialization ability to best achieve progress in this arena. More research is needed to accurately capture the entirety of the field, including larger industry players, academic institutions, and non-English published entities.