Systems and methods of screening for medical states using speech and other vocal behaviors

A system for screening for neurological or other diseases, the system comprising:

• an application service provider for receiving a speech sample from a subject;
• and
• one or more storage media having stored thereon computer-executable instructions comprising:
• a pre-processing module for receiving the speech sample from the application service provider and cleaning the speech sample or selecting segments of the speech sample for further processing;
• a speech metric module for receiving the speech sample from the pre-processing module and identifying acoustic measures of the speech sample;
• a language marker module for receiving the speech sample from the pre-processing module, performing automatic speech recognition;
• classifying recognized words, phrases, or sentences into syntactical categories;
• and determining phrase and/or sentence complexity;
• a coding module for combining acoustic measures and/or language markers obtained by the speech metric module and the language marker module;
• and
• a comparator for comparing the output of the coding module with normative data, criteria, or previous output of the coding module stored in a memory of the system and outputting a decision indicating a likelihood and type of disease state.

A system for screening for diseases, the system comprising:

• an application service provider for receiving a speech sample from a subject;
• and
• one or more storage media having stored thereon computer-executable instructions comprising:
• a pre-processing module for receiving the speech sample from the application service provider, cleaning the speech sample, and selecting segments of the speech sample for further processing;
• a speech metric module for receiving the segments of speech sample from the pre-processing module and identifying acoustic measures of the speech sample;
• and
• a comparator for comparing the output of the speech metric module with normative data, criteria, or previous output of a coding module stored in a memory of the system and outputting a decision indicating a likelihood and type of disease state,
• wherein the identified acoustic measures are used as a sole biomarker of the likelihood and type of disease state for the decision indicating the likelihood and type of disease state.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions stored thereon for performing a method for screening for neurological or other diseases, the instructions comprising steps for:

• receiving a speech sample,
• segmenting the speech sample into windows and performing pattern recognition to locate a particular pattern in each window;
• identifying acoustic measures of the speech sample including characteristics of the particular pattern;
• and
• comparing the acoustic measures of the speech sample including the characteristics of the particular pattern with normative data, criteria, or previous output stored in a memory to provide an indication of disease diagnosis,
• wherein the identified acoustic measures are used as a sole biomarker of the indication of disease diagnosis.

A method for screening for neurological or other diseases, the method comprising:

• receiving, at an identification device, a speech sample from a subject;
• performing a signal analysis, via a processor of the identification device, to identify acoustic measures or language markers from the speech sample;
• determining, via the processor, a likelihood and type of disease state based upon the identified acoustic measures or language markers;
• and
• outputting the likelihood and type of disease state,
• wherein performing the signal analysis to identify acoustic measures or language markers from the speech sample comprises analyzing conversational speech in the speech sample.

A method for screening for neurological or other diseases, the method comprising:

• receiving, at an identification device, a speech sample from a subject;
• performing a signal analysis, via a processor of the identification device, to identify acoustic measures or language markers from the speech sample;
• determining, via the processor, a likelihood and type of disease state based upon the identified acoustic measures or language markers;
• and
• outputting the likelihood and type of disease state,
• wherein performing the signal analysis to identify acoustic measures or language markers from the speech sample comprises identifying both the acoustic measures and the language markers from the speech sample.

A method for screening for neurological or other diseases, the method comprising:

• receiving, at an identification device, a speech sample from a subject;
• performing a signal analysis, via a processor of the identification device, to identify acoustic measures or language markers from the speech sample;
• determining, via the processor, a likelihood and type of disease state based upon the identified acoustic measures or language markers;
• and
• outputting the likelihood and type of disease state, wherein the identified acoustic measures, language markers, or a combination of the identified acoustic measures and language markers are used as a sole biomarker of the likelihood and type of disease state for determining the likelihood and type of disease state.