The Covid-19 Pandemic has resulted in thousands more patients being given tracheostomies as breathing tubes.
These patients cannot pass air over their vocal cords, rendering them “voiceless.”
To communicate is a basic human need. This became the origin of the SRAVI concept.”
SRAVI uses AI algorithms to decipher speech from lip movements.
Patients simply need to mouth words (from a predefined phrase list) into their smartphone’s camera, and SRAVI app will read out what they are trying to say.
The app was evaluated throughout 2019 – 2021 in the Critical Care department at Royal Preston Hospital, led by Consultant in Critical Care and Anaesthesia, Dr Shondipon Laha.
Our all hospital colleagues including doctors, nurses and therapists can now download the app and use it with patients as much as they wish.
Dr Laha said: “The focus is very much on rehabilitation for hospital in-patients, helping to improve their health outcomes, while giving them a crucial tool to communicate with their caregivers. In critical care, we are always trying to lip-read our patients – which is frustrating for hospital staff as well as patients.”
The app was conceptualized just three years ago, in a partnership between Liopa, Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, and Queen’s University Belfast. Following a successful development period, SRAVI has now been licensed for use at the Royal Preston Hospital.
Development of SRAVI was funded, in part, by two Innovate UK projects – the Digital Health Technology Catalyst in 2019 and the Business-led Innovation in Response to Global Disruption in 2020.
This second financial award was granted to Liopa because Covid patients were amongst those benefitting from using the SRAVI app in Critical Care unit.
“We are proud to have achieved commercial readiness in record time,” said Liam McQuillan, CEO of Liopa. “To go from concept, to sale, in three years, is very rare in the healthcare setting. We now want to prove that SRAVI can help people with many medical conditions – stroke, trauma, and paralysis amongst them – and we’re in a position to roll SRAVI out to more hospitals.”
Throughout the investigation into the app’s usefulness, it was proven that SRAVI reads lips with up to 95% accuracy.
Dr. Shondipon Laha adds,: “It’s our wish that this demonstrates that UK companies can work with NHS organisations to develop new healthcare innovation at record pace – something that’s greatly needed in our medical community. The UK is uniquely positioned on the global stage to commit to rapid development of new healthcare innovations.”
