Can an app detect Alzheimer’s before it’s too late?

Bill Gates’ own father, Bill Gates Sr., was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. He is now among the millions of Americans who suffer from the degenerative condition, and the discovery of his father’s condition has driven Gates to research new avenues toward detection and prevention. Gates has personally donated to research initiatives at the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation in the interest of fast-tracking any new discoveries. Gates has stressed on his personal blog that Alzheimer’s detection tech should be “reliable, affordable, and easy-to-use,” and one new avenue in particular has caught his eye.

The Framingham Heart Study is a long-running scientific project that has been analyzing the speech patterns of patients with degenerative mental conditions like Alzheimer’s and dementia. With their research, it is hypothesized that an app could be created that could listen to someone’s speech patterns and analyze them for any warning signs. Many Alzheimer’s patients only begin treatment when physical symptoms manifest, making treatment more difficult, but if early, subtle warnings signs could be detected, treatment could begin much quicker and become more effective.

More research is necessary before anything can actually be created, but Gates is optimistic, saying that he’s “excited about a potential future where identifying your risk of developing Alzheimer’s is as simple as an app on your phone that you can instruct to listen for warning signs in your speech.”