A person’s voice can express far more than just what they are saying. Researchers
\n are increasingly discovering that subtle changes in speech, breathing and vocal quality
\n provide valuable clues about a wide range of health conditions, from Parkinson’s and
\n Alzheimer’s to depression, heart failure and type 2 diabetes. These voice-derived
\n indicators, known as vocal biomarkers, are expected to soon be used for disease diagnosis
\n and monitoring.\u00a0<\/p>\n
To help unlock this potential, researchers and clinicians from the Department of Precision Published in the journal Digital Biomarkers<\/a> as part of the VOCAL (Vocal Biomarker Guidelines for Ontology, Classification, Application As research on vocal biomarkers becomes more popular, the field’s rapid growth has To address this challenge, eVoiceNet<\/a> \u2014 a European network coordinated by the Luxembourg Institute of Health, and Bridge2AI-Voice<\/a> \u2014 a North American consortium funded by the NIH and co-led by USF researchers \u2014 conducted The framework provides a scientifically grounded vocabulary designed to improve collaboration \u201cVoice has enormous potential as a source of health information, but the field cannot Dr. Yael Bensoussan<\/a>, associate professor of Otolaryngology at the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine<\/a> and co-head of the Bridge2AI-Voice consortium, said the framework reflects both the \u201cOne of the unique strengths of vocal biomarkers is that they capture information The publication marks the first phase of the broader VOCAL initiative, which aims
\n Health (DoPH) at the Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH)<\/a> and the University of South Florida<\/a> Morsani College of Medicine have led a new international effort to establish the
\n first consensus-based framework and definitions for vocal biomarkers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n and Logistics) initiative, the study brings together 24 international experts from
\n Europe and North America to address a key challenge facing voice-based health technologies:
\n the lack of a common scientific language.<\/p>\n
\n led to inconsistent terminology, with concepts such as “voice biomarkers,” “speech
\n biomarkers” and “vocal biomarkers” often used interchangeably, despite referring to
\n different physiological and cognitive processes.<\/p>\n
\n a rigorous multi-stage consensus process between 2024 and 2025. The result is a structured
\n framework that clearly distinguishes between vocal measures and validated vocal biomarkers
\n and introduces a hierarchical model spanning the different domains involved in voice
\n and speech production.<\/p>\n
\n between clinicians, speech and language specialists, engineers, data scientists, regulators
\n and industry stakeholders. It also aims to support the future development of standards,
\n validation pathways and regulatory guidance for voice-based health technologies.<\/p>\n
\n progress efficiently without a common language,\u201d said Dr. Guy Fagherazzi, head of
\n the Department of Precision Health at the LIH and chair of eVoiceNet. \u201cBy defining
\n what we mean when we talk about voice-based health measures, we are creating the foundations
\n for more robust research, greater transparency and, ultimately, clinically useful
\n technologies that can benefit patients.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n promise and complexity of vocal biomarker research.<\/p>\n
\n from multiple physiological and cognitive systems simultaneously,\u201d Bensoussan said.
\n \u201cHowever, this complexity is also what has made the field difficult to define. This
\n work provides a structure that allows researchers to speak the same scientific language
\n while preserving the richness of the signal.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n to establish international guidelines and standards for vocal biomarker research and
\n implementation. The researchers hope that a shared vocabulary will help accelerate
\n the translation of voice-based technologies from the lab to the clinic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A person’s voice can express far more than just what they are saying. Researchers are increasingly discovering that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-356444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}