A test for Parkinson’s with a phone call

Parkinson’s disease, which causes weakness and tremors, and affects 6.3 million people worldwide, is very difficult to detect early on. Max Little is a mathematician whose research has come up with an easy, fast and inexpensive way to test for Parkinson’s—a 30-second phone call. Vocal chords are affected by the disease the same way limbs and motor control are. Digital microphones, vocal recognition software and machine learning work together and can determine a person’s progression with the disease. By reducing logistical difficulties and cost, researchers can take advantage of high-frequency monitoring and population-scale screening to start locating the disease’s early biomarkers to start fighting the disease. Little claims the test has an accuracy of 99%.