Frequently Asked Questions

Swaasa® artificial intelligence platform (Swaasa® AI Platform) is Software as a Medical Device for screening and diagnostic aid in the assessment of respiratory diseases or conditions.

The device is primarily  used for lung health assessment i.e.,  as a screening tool and diagnostic aid in the assessment of respiratory conditions. The device provides an informational report which is intended to be reviewed by a qualified healthcare practitioner – pulmonologist, general physician, and medical officers.

The Swaasa® platform uses Artificial Intelligence to analyze cough sounds along with symptoms in detecting.  

  1. Presence of underlying respiratory problem (Yes/No)
  2. Respiratory disease pattern (Normal/Obstructive/Restrictive/Mixed)
  3. Pattern severity (Low, Medium, High)

In addition the device also provides quantitative information on cough severity, dry cough count and wet cough count.

Identification of pattern plays an important part in supporting diagnosis of respiratory conditions such as asthma, COPD etc.. There are four possible patterns of respiratory diseases: obstruction, restriction, mixed (obstruction and restriction) and normal.  

Obstructive pattern lung diseases are a group of conditions that make it difficult for a person to completely exhale the air from their lungs. On the other hand, people with restrictive pattern lung diseases experience difficulty in fully expanding their lungs to take in air. Whereas in mixed pattern lung diseases, the total amount of air breathed in and breathed out are reduced.

  1. Risk-No, Pattern-Normal, Severity-Normal, Summary-“Symptoms indicate there is no problem. If symptoms worsen please do visit Doctor.”
  2. Risk-Yes, Pattern-Normal, Severity-Low/Medium/High, Summary-“Symptoms indicate you are likely having Upper respiratory tract infection. If symptoms worsen please do visit Doctor.”
  3. Risk-Yes, Pattern-Obstructive, Severity-Low/Medium/High, Summary-“Symptoms indicate you are likely experiencing obstruction in the airways. Please do visit Doctor.”
  4. Risk-Yes, Pattern-Restrcitve, Severity-Low/Medium/High, Summary-“Symptoms indicate you are likely experiencing problem related to lung expansion. Please do visit Doctor.”
  5. Risk-Yes, Pattern-Mixed, Severity-Low/Medium/High, Summary-“Symptoms indicate you are likely experiencing both obstruction in the airways and problem related to lung expansion. Please do visit Doctor.”
Obstructive lung diseases are a group of lung diseases that are caused due to obstruction of airways leading to difficulty in breathing. Obstructive lung disease includes conditions that decrease a person’s ability to exhale all the air from their lungs.

Restrictive lung diseases are a group of lung diseases that restrict lung expansion leading to decreased lung volume, increased difficulty in breathing and decreased  oxygenation.

Lung Health Index is derived based on a proprietary algorithm to calculate index on a scale of 1 to 10 based on underlying lung health problem and its severity. It takes into account the parameters like type of cough, pattern of cough and its severity, and cough count values.

Lung Health Index is grouped into low, medium and high values as follows.

Low:1-3Lungs are normal
Medium: 4-5There is Some abnormality in the lungs. Please keep monitoring and see your doctor if the score persists.
High: 6-10Please visit your doctor at the earliest.

A dry cough is a cough with no mucus or phlegm. It is mostly caused due to irritation or inflammation  in the respiratory tract. Most common cause of dry cough is upper respiratory  tract infections like common cold or flu.

Dry cough count helps to monitor  any increase/decrease in patients’ dry cough frequency.

A wet cough is a cough with mucus or phlegm. Mucus in the tract is pushed out of the body. Conditions causing wet cough are COPD, Asthma , Pneumonia etc. Wet cough count helps to monitor any increase/decrease in patients’ wet cough frequency.

No. Currently COVID-19/Pulmonary TB likely detection is available only as an add-on. Customers must subscribe to this to avail. Please reach out to sales / support (support@salcit.in) for additional details. 

Customers who are integrating to the Swaasa® AI platform can use enhanced APIs to to get 

  1. Likely presence of COVID-19/Pulmonary TB (Yes/No/Inconclusive)
  2. COVID-19/Pulmonary TB risk score (which ranges from 1 to 10). 

 

Customers using the Swaasa® mobile application can see an updated dashboard with the following additional functionality. 

  1. Under detections / predictions section an entry for “Likely presence of COVID-19/Pulmonary TB”. This can have three possible outputs Yes/No/Inconclusive
  2. COVID-19/Pulmonary TB risk score (which can range from 1 to 10) in addition to LHI® value.

Based on cough sound analysis and symptoms information COVID-19/Pulmonary TB likely value is yes when the device identifies that there is a possibility that patient has  COVID-19/Pulmonary TB disease.  When the value is no the patient likely does not have COVID-19/Pulmonary TB. An inconclusive result indicates that the device cannot provide a definitive answer.

COVID-19/Pulmonary TB risk score is derived using a proprietary algorithm to calculate score on a scale of 1 to 10. This is based on the composite analysis of COVID-19/Pulmonary TB symptoms and cough sound. characteristics.  A score of 1 to 3 means low risk zone, 4 to 6 means medium risk zone and 7 to 10 means high risk zone.

Yes, follow these instructions.

The device is used as a screening tool and diagnostic aid in the assessment of respiratory conditions when used on adults (18 years of age and over) under the supervision of healthcare practitioners.

Patients in acute exacerbation/ severe breathlessness/ recent myocardial infarction or pulmonary embolism (within 4-6 weeks)/ recent eye or abdominal or brain surgery/ hospitalization due to any heart problem within the past month/ pregnant women are not recommended.

The cough sample given by a patient may be voluntary or involuntary. In other words the patient  does not have to be suffering from (symptomatic) cough for the product to be able to assess lung health.

  • Find a quiet place. Ensure while recording there is no background noise such as wind noise, fan and traffic.
  • Hold the phone with the microphone facing the subject / patient. Maintain a distance of 4-8 inches from the patient’s mouth.
  • Maintain a 90 degree angle with the face. 
  • Now you are ready to record the cough sounds.
    1.   Please cough multiple times.
    2.   Each time take a breath and cough.
    3.   Cough 3 to 4 times or until the recording stops.
  • Please feel free to wear a [surgical] mask.

Patient is only provided with a cough severity score. The detailed report is only accessible to the doctor. 

The device can also be used for self-assessment at home based on the doctor’s discretion to send an assessment link to the patient. Patients must follow instructions while capturing data and recording the cough.

Taking self assessment at home is for your own well being. Hence it is important that you follow the instructions carefully to get genuine results.

In the interest of your own health and the health of our family and colleagues, it is required that the cough sample recorded is your own cough and not any other person’s.

Keep in mind that the system’s usefulness and effectiveness is dependent on the data submitted and correct answers and your own (patients’) authentic cough samples is what will give the most benefit to you and your family members.

Swaasa® can be integrated with any existing health service platforms using Rest APIs.

Yes, Swaasa® has completed WHO defined clinical trials.

Swaasa® has received No Objection Certificate (NOC) from CDSCO to perform lung health assessment on adults.

Swaasa® AI Platform uses anonymised data when integrated with 3rd party health service platforms. 

When used as a standalone device, users have to accept the End User License Agreement (EULA).

The data security and privacy are handled as per HIPAA compliance.

Swaasa® is ISO 13485:2016 certified,  ISO 27001:2013 certified and HIPAA certified.

ReWell MD was the original name of the respiratory health assessment platform developed by Salcit Technologies Private Limited, which has been renamed as Swaasa®.