Six minutes of walking data collected by a smartphone sensor could provide population level health screening, researchers reported in PLOS Digital Health. The study tracked more than 100,000 people as they went about their day wearing activity monitors similar to motion sensors used in smartphones. The sensors captured information on intensity from short burst of walking to predict five-year mortality risk, independent of age and sex.
A pair of Israeli health tech companies, Beyond Verbal and Healthymize, plan to merge to form Newton, Mass.-based Vocalis Health. The company will be focused on developing vocal biomarkers, which track voice patterns via phone calls or smart devices to screen for various voice-indicating ailments including chronic respiratory and cardiac conditions, as well as depression. Vocalis has raised a $9 million financing led by Israeli health tech and life science venture firm Amoon to accumulate additional clinical data and enhance its voice database.