14-year-old develops AI app to detect heart disease in 7 seconds. Meet Siddharth Nandyala

This isn’t Siddharth Nandyala’s first foray into impactful innovation. A computer science student at the University of Texas, he previously created a low-cost prosthetic arm and founded STEM IT, a startup providing science-technology kits for students. (Image credit: STEM IT)

A 14-year-old Texas boy, Siddharth Nandyala from Frisco, has amazed the medical world with his invention of a smartphone app capable of detecting heart disease in just 7 seconds.

According to the New York Post, Nandyala's app, named Circadian AI, identifies early symptoms of heart disease with remarkable accuracy. Users simply place their smartphone near their chest, allowing the app to record the heartbeat, filter out background noise, and then use a cloud-based machine learning model to analyse the data. The app can detect conditions including arrhythmia, heart failure, coronary artery disease, and valve problems.

Nandyala, a student at the University of Texas, developed and refined the app in collaboration with medical professionals, using data gathered from hospitals in both the US and India.

Clinical trials have shown the app's exceptional accuracy, demonstrating over 96 percent effectiveness across 15,000 American and 3,500 Indian patients. Currently, Circadian AI is designed as a pre-screening tool for trained medical personnel, not a replacement for traditional methods like EKG.

Cardiologists have lauded Nandyala's innovation, especially its potential to significantly impact areas with limited healthcare access. This invention addresses a critical global health issue, as heart disease is responsible for approximately 32 percent of deaths worldwide. Dr. Jamila Ahmed of Louisiana State University noted, "Early potential diagnosis in patients who cannot access medical care can save their lives," underscoring the vital potential of Siddharth's work.

This isn't Nandyala's first venture into impactful innovation. The computer science student previously created a low-cost prosthetic arm and founded STEM IT, a startup that provides science and technology kits for students. His contributions have earned him significant recognition, including a Certificate of Recognition from the US House of Representatives and a congratulatory letter from then-US President Joe Biden.

Looking ahead, Nandyala aims to expand his app's capabilities to include the detection of lung diseases such as pneumonia and pulmonary embolism. "I want to bring a change that makes the world better, where innovators can step out of their comfort zone and do something big," he stated.