How smartphones are transforming global health

Access to quick and affordable diagnostics is a cornerstone of effective healthcare, yet millions of lives are lost annually due to prohibitive costs and lengthy medical procedures.

Shyam Gollakota, professor at the University of Washington’s Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering, is tackling this critical issue head-on, leveraging the ubiquitous smartphone to develop groundbreaking diagnostic tools that promise to transform healthcare accessibility, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.

“The idea is to use technology to positively impact people worldwide, and healthcare is one such area,” said Gollakota. “The smartphone has been tapped to make this idea a reality, resulting in smartphone-based, affordable healthcare tools for improving the lives of people in low- and middle-income countries.”

His efforts have earned him the prestigious 2024 Infosys Prize, recognising his pioneering work in mobile systems, machine learning and mobile health. The prize includes a pure gold medal, a citation, and a prize purse of $100,000. Furthermore, he will participate in the new Infosys Prize Residency programme, spending a month collaborating with researchers at an Indian institution of his choosing.

One of Gollakota’s most impactful inventions is a smartphone app designed to detect sleep apnea, a serious sleep disorder linked to hypertension, stroke and diabetes. Traditional diagnosis can be costly, but Gollakota’s app transforms the smartphone into an active sonar system. By emitting and analysing reflected sound signals, the app's algorithms identify sleep apnea events. The beauty of this solution lies in its accessibility – any device with a microphone and speaker can use it, potentially reaching millions.

“Shyam’s research is not confined to formal boundaries,” said jury chair, Jayathi Y. Murthy, president of Oregon State University. “It spans multiple engineering domains to tackle societal problems, percolating down to low- and middle-income countries.”

Beyond sleep apnea, Gollakota’s team is using smartphones to detect blood clots. By making use of the phone’s vibration motor and camera, they can track the micro-movements of copper particles and calculate prothrombin time (PT) and international normalised ratio (INR), crucial indicators of blood clotting.

Addressing another global health concern, hearing loss, which affects 5.3% of the world’s population according to the World Health Organization, Gollakota has also developed low-cost wireless earbuds capable of screening for hearing impairment.

These earbuds, combined with sophisticated wireless sensing algorithms, detect faint sounds emitted by the cochlea, the inner ear organ responsible for converting sound waves into electrical impulses. Early detection, particularly in newborns, is crucial for mitigating the long-term impact of hearing loss.

Gollakota’s innovative spirit goes beyond healthcare. Inspired by science fiction, he is driven to create practical solutions for real-world problems. His work on ambient backscatter technology, which allows battery-free wireless communication by reflecting ambient signals, has significant implications for energy conservation and the future of wireless technology. This innovation has found applications in diverse areas, from cellphones and cameras to underwater Wi-Fi and power-line networks.

“I just go after problems that have been unsolved or have not been given enough attention,” Gollakota said at the award ceremony in Bengaluru.

Gollakota’s approach to problem-solving is also evident in his pioneering work on augmenting human auditory perception with artificial intelligence (AI), which allows for the programming of acoustic scenes, enabling users to focus on specific sounds or filter out unwanted noise based on their semantic descriptions. This complex task, even challenging for the human brain, opens exciting possibilities for improving auditory experiences in various environments.

His remarkable achievements have garnered widespread recognition, including being named to the MIT Technology Review’s 35 Innovators Under 35 list, twice featuring on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list. He is also a recipient of the US National Science Foundation Career Award.

Kris Gopalakrishnan, president of the Infosys Science Foundation that established the Infosys Prize 16 years ago to recognise groundbreaking research by scientists under 40, praised the laureates: “This year’s laureates have demonstrated exceptional dedication and ingenuity, contributing solutions to critical global challenges. Their achievements highlight the strength of the scientific ecosystem and reaffirm our belief that science is on the right path to creating a better, more sustainable future.”