Testing smartphone breathing sounds to diagnose lung disease

This research study is testing a smartphone-based approach called AWARE (Acoustic Waveform Respiratory Evaluation) that uses your phone's microphone and artificial intelligence to evaluate your lung health by analyzing the sounds your lungs make when you breathe. The researchers want to see if this technology can accurately diagnose different lung diseases like asthma, COPD, and cystic fibrosis, estimate how well your lungs are working, and detect when your condition is getting worse. If it works, this could help people monitor their lung health from home instead of only at specialty clinics.

Currently, doctors rely mostly on what patients tell them about their symptoms and only do objective lung function tests a few times a year at hospitals or clinics. This study exists because researchers believe a smartphone tool could let people check their lung health more often and objectively from home, which could help catch problems earlier and improve how well these diseases are controlled.