Sonde Health Partners with GN Group Using Voice to Detect Mild Cognitive Impairment

Sonde Health, a vocal biomarker company, and GN Group, a provider of intelligent audio solutions, have signed a multi-year strategic partnership to research and develop commercial vocal biomarkers for mild cognitive impairment. The research will serve as the backbone for new voice-based tools to help at-risk individuals gain timel health insights using GN Group's device technologies and, ultimately, to enable early detection and management of life-threatening diseases for the millions of people living with hearing loss.

By combining machine learning technology and millions of data samples, the human voice can reveal vital changes to mental health. Sonde Health and GN Group will research if subtle and even inaudible variations in the human voice from people using hearing aids can enable early detection of mild cognitive impairment and help predict irreversible diseases like Alzheimer's.

"Wearable technology has, until now, focused largely on tracking data linked to your physical fitness, such as heart rate and sleep cycles. At Sonde, we believe that when embedded within wearables and other medical devices, vocal biomarker technology can reveal deep, actionable insights into health conditions," said David Liu, CEO of Sonde Health, in a statement. "Through this partnership, Sonde Health and GN Group will be the first to scale voice-based cognitive biomarkers to a large population to give people insight into their mental fitness and provide a better and earlier understanding of mild cognitive impairment."
"Sonde Health is a true pioneer in this space, and we're proud to engage in this strategic partnership as part of GN Group's long-term commitment and focus on mental health. Our leadership in sound innovation provides a strong foundation for the advancement of using the voice as a biomarker, and we want to help find new ways of combating dementia, which is particularly prevalent among people with hearing loss,” said Peter Aksel Villadsen, senior vice president of GN Group, in a statement.

Sonde and GN Group are teaming up with several academic and medical institutions to conduct the research. The initial focus of the research will be to identify which measurable aspects of speech are affected by mild cognitive impairment. Sonde and GN Group plan to expand the research into additional health conditions, such as anxiety, depression, dementia, and movement disorders.

"This research is only the beginning of Sonde's next generation of innovation,," Liu said. "The long-term nature of this partnership enables us to accelerate the use of voice in screening for a range of cognitive, physical, and mental health conditions and create scalable technology for integration into hearing aids and other wearable devices."