Vocalis CEO Tal Wenderow Discusses Vocal Biomarkers, Healthcare, and Coronavirus – Voicebot Podcast Ep 145
Vocalis Health was formed last year by combining two startups that have been around for a while: Beyond Verbal and Healthymize. They are now focused on using vocal biomarkers to identify the likelihood of hospitalization for a variety of conditions and have another product focused on respiratory disease detection and monitoring. Given that background, it’s not surprising that the company has taken a prominent role in the healthcare industry response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The company has been collecting voice samples related to COVID-19, but few people know that there are two initiatives underway. The most well-known is a website where anyone can donate a little bit of their vocal recording to help build a large database of baseline voice data. Another involves Vocalis providing an app to COVID-19 positive patients and monitoring their progress day-by-day to track the trajectory of the disease.
While everyone is excited about the prospect of early detection of coronavirus infection that may not be the biggest impact of Vocalis’ latest initiative. COVID-19 patients that convalescing at home could have a tool to track the progress of their recovery and a couple of voice samples per day could help warn them if their condition is deteriorating. It could make the difference between early intervention and a severe negative outcome.
Tal Wanderow is CEO of Vocalis and before that was CEO of Beyond Verbal, one of the merge companies that formed Vocalis. Earlier, he was a co-founder of Corindus Vascular Robotics. He has worked in healthcare for nearly 20 years and holds a degree in mechanical engineering from Technion. Tal and I discuss the latest progress behind employing vocal biomarkers to evaluate health conditions and risks. We also go into detail about the current work behind tools for diagnosing and monitoring COVID-19 patients. We even explore the ethics of what data patients should have a right to access directly versus what should first go through a healthcare provider.
Show Notes – Tal Wenderow Interview
- Follow Vocalis Health on Twitter: @VocalisHealth
- Learn more on the web: Vocalis Health
You can listen to the podcast interview above, on Google or Apple Podcasts or most of the leading podcast players.
Follow @bretkinsella Follow @voicebotai
Coronavirus, Tech and Voice with Recode, CNET and Strategy Analytics – Voicebot Podcast Ep 142
Meredith, Media, and Voice with Rachel Reed – Voicebot Podcast Ep 143
