Indian-American teen develops app that can detect early signs of heart disease in just seven seconds

In the United States an estimated 48% of adults or 121.5 million people, have some form of cardiovascular disease according to the American Heart Association. Cardiovascular diseases which include heart attack and stroke are the No.

1 killer worldwide, responsible for about 32% of global deaths. The risk of these deaths can be reduced with earlier detection.Now, a 14-year-old from Frisco, Texas, has developed a ground-breaking smartphone app to detect early signs of heart disease in just seven seconds.Circadian AI, the app records heart sounds, filters out ambient noise and analyses the data using a cloud-based machine learning model- all by placing a smartphone near the chest.The app identifies arrhythmias, irregular heartbeats, early signs of heart failure, indicators of coronary artery disease and heart valve abnormalities.Siddharth Nandyala's motivation stemmed from his desire to use AI to help people and revolutionize the healthcare system. “What really took my interest in the healthcare side of artificial intelligence was the sheer amount of impact and the change that can be made,” he told the Smithsonian magazine.

“Even one life detected is one life saved” he added.

He spent months gathering data from hospitals in the US and India and collaborated with medical professionals and patients to refine his app. The clinical trials for his app involved approximately 15,000 patients in the US and around 3,500 in India with the app achieving over 96% accuracy in detecting heart abnormalities, as per Nandyala.Currently, the app is intended only for clinical use by trained personnel, as it requires proper understanding to operate effectively.

Nandyala emphasized that it is a pre-screening tool and not a replacement for traditional diagnostic methods like EKGs.Medical professionals praised the app's potential to advance medical care, especially in areas with limited access to healthcare.“An early potential diagnosis in patients who otherwise may not have had access to medical care may ultimately reduce long-term morbidity and mortality from this condition,” Jameel Ahmed, an electrophysiologist at Louisiana State University, told the magazine.For the 14-year-old, this is not his first innovative work of technology. He previously designed a low-cost prosthetic arm and founded STEM IT- a startup that creates science and technology kits for students.His work has earned him a Certificate of Recognition from the US House of Representatives and a letter of congratulations from then-President Joe Biden.The young innovator is already a freshman studying computer science at the University of Texas. He hopes to expand the app's capabilities to detect lung-related illnesses pneumonia and pulmonary embolism using similar techniques.