Friday Q&A: A startup founder tackles the riddle of why we cough

Joe Brew, the founder of three-year-old Hyfe, sees the potential for cough-tracking technology to be as ubiquitous as blood-pressure cuffs. One of the most frequent ailments for which individuals go to the doctor is a persistent cough. A persistent cough affects 10% to 20% of People, but it isn't frequently assessed or tracked like other health markers like weight or blood pressure. Joe Brew, a former data scientist and epidemiologist who is now an entrepreneur, co-founded Hyfe three years ago to address what he sees as a knowledge gap on this widespread medical ailment. Brew is certain that its AI-driven cough-tracking system can assist patients and their doctors in identifying the underlying cause of a cough. Coughs are intended to be detected and categorised by the acoustic AI. Hyfe, a company based in Wilmington, Delaware, intends to get approval from the Food and Drug Administration to market the technology as a medical device.