The Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation® (MHIF) enrolled its first participant in VOICE-HF, an international clinical trial evaluating whether artificial intelligence can detect worsening heart failure through subtle changes in a person’s voice. MHIF is among the first centers to enroll participants in the study led locally by Mosi Bennett, MD, PhD, advanced heart failure cardiologist, researcher and principal investigator in the study, who also serves on the trial’s steering committee. MHIF research coordinators, Andrew Garner and Ericka Kim, were also part of the first patient enrollment.
“Implanted sensors work, but most patients with heart failure will never get one. A tool that runs on the phone people already own could bring remote monitoring to many more patients, including those who live far from a heart center. VOICE-HF is designed to test whether it’s accurate enough to rely on,” said Dr. Bennett.
Listening for Earlier Warning Signs
For people living with heart failure, recognizing a change in their condition between medical appointments can be challenging. Fluid buildup associated with worsening heart failure can affect the lungs, airways and vocal folds, creating small changes in the voice that researchers are studying as potential warning signs.
Heart failure affects 6.7 million adults in the United States and is a leading cause of hospitalization in people aged 65 and older. It drives roughly 1.2 million hospitalizations and $28.2 billion in US healthcare costs each year. Nearly one in five patients is readmitted within 30 days of discharge.
Most patients have no structured monitoring at home. Daily weight scales, the most common home tool, have limited sensitivity because congestion often begins with fluid redistribution before body weight rises. When scales do signal deterioration, it is often only a few days before a hospitalization. Implantable cardiac sensors detect congestion earlier but require a procedure and reach only a small fraction of eligible patients. Congestion also affects the lungs, airways, and vocal folds, producing subtle but measurable changes in the voice. Noah Labs Vox™ is cloud-based software designed to detect these changes from short voice recordings captured at home on a phone or tablet, with the aim of extending remote monitoring and management to as many patients with heart failure as possible.
About VOICE-HF
Each participant records a short daily voice sample on their smartphone or tablet at home. Noah Labs Vox™ analyzes the recordings for signs of worsening heart failure. The study includes more than 15 sites in the US, Europe, and Canada. The co-primary endpoints are sensitivity for worsening heart failure events and the unexplained alert rate.
Vox is an investigational device and is not approved for clinical use in the U.S.
See the press release from Noah Labs.
