Say 'Ahhh': A Simpler Way To Detect Parkinson's

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Getting a diagnosis for Parkinson's disease might be as easy as placing a phone call.

There's currently no cure for Parkinson's, a deliberating neurological disease. There's also no blood test that can detect it, meaning early intervention is almost impossible.

But soon there might be a shockingly easy way to screen for Parkinson's disease. It would be as simple as picking up the telephone and saying "ahhh."

One of these voices tests positive for Parkinson's disease. Can you tell the difference? Find out if you're right at the bottom of this story.

"There's some evidence, admittedly weak, that voice disturbances may well be one of the first or early indicator of the disease," mathematician Max Little tells weekends on All Things Considered host Guy Raz.

Little is head of the Parkinson's Voice Initiative and he's created an algorithm that can determine whether or not a person has Parkinson's just by the sound of their voice.

Right now, the algorithm has a 99 percent success rate.

A Surprising Result

Little worked on this algorithm while he was getting his PhD at Oxford. It didn't occur to him that it could be used to detect Parkinson's disease until a chance encounter with a researcher from Intel.

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Say 'Ahhh': A Simpler Way To Detect Parkinson's