Decorte Future Industries, founded by Roeland Decorte, is leading the charge in a groundbreaking audio-powered revolution in the field of healthcare. Decorte’s personal experience with his father’s misdiagnosis and subsequent health scare inspired him to develop technology that could provide early and accurate diagnoses for various ailments.
Decorte’s journey began with attempts to integrate sensors into clothing and an elaborate exoskeleton, but he soon realized that the noise interference from external factors hindered accurate readings. However, a chance meeting with PhD student Erika Bondareva during the pandemic led to a breakthrough. Bondareva’s work on diagnosing Covid through audio data analysis sparked the idea of using audio sensors to detect other conditions.
Decorte and Bondareva collaborated to expand this concept, focusing initially on heart conditions. Through sophisticated algorithms that filter out background noise, Decorte’s technology interprets the body’s subtle signals. While there are already smart stethoscopes and apps on the market that claim to diagnose Alzheimer’s based on speech patterns, Decorte aims to go further. He envisions his technology being able to diagnose heart problems, stomach cancer, blood sugar levels, and conditions related to speech and gait.
Decorte’s vision involves utilizing the microphone in smartphones as a continuous monitoring tool. Patients would periodically receive alerts to press their smartphones against different parts of their bodies for more detailed readings. This unified solution eliminates the need for multiple apps and hardware solutions targeting specific conditions.
Decorte Future Industries has secured significant funding and is expanding its team in Cambridge. Clinical trials are currently underway in India, where initial skepticism from a local doctor was dispelled when Decorte’s colleague played back a recording featuring the doctor’s own voice. The technology has demonstrated a remarkable 99.6 percent accuracy when compared to ECG readings, and patients can conveniently take readings at home with just a microphone.
