ResApp tumbles on study

Shares in medical tech firm ResApp Health have more than halved today, after the company released the preliminary results of a new US study on its technology.

The company’s smartphone app, ResAppDx, aims to diagnose and manage respiratory diseases.

The technology is based on machine learning algorithms that use sound to diagnose and measure the severity of respiratory conditions without the need for additional hardware.

The Smartcough-C-2 study, which involved 1,251 patients aged 29 days to 12 years old, revealed success rates varying from 71 per cent to 86 per cent for lower and primary upper respiratory tract disease and asthma.

ResApp said it now intended to submit for US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for the three diseases.

However, the results for pneumonia and bronchiolitis were less than 70 per cent and the company said it would delay seeking approval for those two diseases.

An Australian study released last month had a success rate of between 79 per cent and 91 per cent.

The company also said the results for croup would be released in November due to technical issues.

“The results for lower respiratory tract disease, asthma/reactive airways disease (for children over two years of age) and primary upper respiratory tract disease demonstrate that our algorithms effectively aid clinicians in making important clinical diagnostic decisions,” managing director Tony Keating said.

"We plan to pursue FDA submissions for these three diseases in parallel to CE and TGA submissions for six diseases being prepared following the recent Australian study results.

“Comparing these results to our Australian Breathe Easy study, we see the result of differing clinical practices between Australia and the US, driven by a substantially different healthcare and insurance system.”

Shares in ResApp were 52.27 per cent lower at 10 cents each at 3.45pm AEDT.