Title: Tapping into the Sound of Health
Presenter: Rupal Patel, PhD
Professor, Northeastern University, Bouve College of Health Science & Khoury College of Computer Science; Director of the VOXX Lab & ASTRiC center
This session examines how voice can function as a sensitive, affordable, and noninvasive input for integrative and remote care. Voice carries acoustic, prosodic, and linguistic information that tracks physiology and behavior. I will review evidence from my lab and others linking vocal features to neurological disease, cognitive change, cardiopulmonary status, stress, and endocrine transitions such as menopause. I will outline practical pipelines for remote capture, quality control, feature extraction, and model development, and show how pairing voice with wearables and ecological momentary assessment can improve screening, longitudinal monitoring, and triage. I will also cover limitations, including confounders, specificity, privacy, consent, and equity. The session closes with a pragmatic roadmap for integrating voice into clinical workflows and wellness programs, with criteria for clinical utility and next steps for prospective evaluation.
Speaker Bio:
Dr. Rupal Patel is a Professor with interdisciplinary appointments in Bouve College of Health Science and Khoury College of Computer Science, at Northeastern University. Her research interests lie at the intersection of speech neuroscience and assistive technologies. Rupal has decades of real-world clinical and industry experience in applied AI. Most recently, she is founded and led VocaliD, a voice AI company that creates synthetic voices with personality for discerning brands that understand the power of custom voice and for individuals living with speechlessness who want to be heard in a voice that is uniquely theirs. VocaliD was acquired in 2022 by Veritone, an enterprise AI company. One of Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative people in Business, Rupal has been featured on TED, NPR, and in major international news and technology publications.