According to the World Health Organization, by 2030, Alzheimer's cases in Mexico will have doubled. Early detection is the only way to control the disease and improve the quality of life of patients, but in the country, more than 90% of senior citizens have never had tests to diagnose Alzheimer's.

The University of Murcia proved that Alzheimer’s disease can be diagnosed early by comparing voice patterns like speech temperature, language fluency, and the length of pauses, between a healthy patient and a patient with Alzheimer's.

That's why in Radio Fórmula, one of Mexico’s most important radio stations for the elderly, we decided, to use the hundreds of daily calls we receive from our listeners, to study their voices and conduct a massive checkup.

According to Science Direct, during the first stages of Alzheimer’s, patients suffer speech alterations, which transforms voice into an indicator that can help to detect this disease early. With this in mind, we proposed to find a way to take advantage of our listeners' calls to study their voices and provide them a remote examination through the radio.

We asked our listeners to recite the first stanza of “Cielito Lindo”, one of the most popular Mexican songs, and then, with the help of the Alzheimer’s Foundation, we converted their voices into a graphical representation, that allows us to statistically compare their voice patterns, with those of patients with Alzheimer’s disease, reciting the same stanza of the song.

The voice patterns we compared were:

- Speech temperature.

- Language fluency.

- Length of pauses.

Once the analysis was done, we contacted listeners in whom we detected voice patterns similar to those of patients with the disorder, to suggest them a confirmatory neuropsychological exam at the Alzheimer’s Foundation

- The number of calls to the station increased by 400% during the program.

- We make our listeners aware of the importance of taking the exam on time, so much that we received calls for several days asking us to carry out the exam.

- 2% of the listeners who were screened were referred to the Alzheimer's Foundation for confirmatory neuropsychological exams.