Digital Voice Analysis as a Measure of Frailty and Distress

Launched by UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL, BASEL, SWITZERLAND · Mar 13, 2023

Keywords

ClinConnect Summary

This clinical trial is looking at a new way to measure how frail or distressed patients might feel by analyzing their voices. Researchers believe that by examining audio signals from patients, they can find useful information about their emotional and physical states, which could help in understanding their overall health.

To participate, you need to be an adult (18 years or older) with an active cancer or blood cancer diagnosis and be able to understand, speak, and read German. You should also be able to concentrate for about 20-30 minutes and provide written consent to join the study. If you have serious voice problems, short life expectancy, or significant cognitive or emotional challenges, you might not be eligible to participate. If you join the study, you can expect to take part in voice recordings and discussions to help researchers gather the information they need. Your experience could contribute to important advancements in how we recognize and address frailty and distress in patients.

Gender

ALL

Eligibility criteria

• Inclusion Criteria:
• • Active cancer or haemato-oncological malignancy
• • Adults (≥ 18 years)
• • Ability to understand, speak and read German language fluently
• • Ability to provide written consent
• • Sufficient or corrected vision to see the images
• • Sufficient auditory comprehension for participation in the study based on the therapist's clinical opinion
• • Ability to concentrate for 20-30 minutes based on the investigator's clinical opinion
• • Signed informed consent to the study
• Exclusion Criteria:
• • Aphonia, dysphonia or other obvious voice alterations of patient's voice
• • Life-expectancy shorter ≤ 14 days as judged by a physician or nurse via "surprise question"
• • Breathlessness whilst speaking
• • Cognitive impairment as judged by physician or Mini-Cog in the G8 screening tool
• • Severe physical, emotional or existential suffering because of which the enrollment and participation in the study would result in patient burden, as judged by the treating physicians and their multiprofessional team members