How ValleySense works
Valley fever looks like other lung infections, so it often goes untested for weeks. ValleySense helps patients know when to see a doctor and what to ask, and helps doctors decide when to order the valley fever blood test.
01Patients, about 3 minutes
The patient journey
Step 01
Check for warning signs
Trouble breathing, severe chest pain, or confusion? ValleySense tells you to call 911 and stops. Nothing is saved.
Step 02
Answer short questions
How long you've been sick, your symptoms, recent dust or digging nearby, and things that raise your risk.
Step 03
Record 5 seconds of coughing
Or upload a clip, or skip it. The recording is checked and then thrown away. It is never saved.
Step 04
See how soon to see a doctor
You get an urgency level and a plain valley fever signal: Low, Moderate, or High. No percentages.
Step 05
Find care and know what to ask
Open a map of urgent care nearby. If your signal calls for it, ask: “Can you test me for valley fever?”
Step 06
Share a card with your doctor
If you choose to save, you get an ID, a PIN, and a QR code. Your answers are deleted after 30 days.
02Clinicians, about 1 minute
The doctor journey
Step 01
Scan or type the ID
The QR code opens ValleySense with the survey ID filled in. It never contains the PIN.
Step 02
Enter the PIN and read the briefing
Symptoms, duration, exposures, risk groups, the cough analysis, and what the patient was told.
Step 03
Add what you know (optional)
Working diagnosis, days since onset, eosinophilia, erythema nodosum, adenopathy, prior serology.
Step 04
Add a chest X-ray (optional)
Resized in the browser, run through the team's X-ray model, and discarded. Nothing is stored.
Step 05
Get a likelihood and a testing recommendation
A valley fever likelihood with every factor and its likelihood ratio, plus whether to order cocci serology and when to retest.
Step 06
Export the PDF
The PDF is the record: briefing, inputs, assessment, and heatmap. ValleySense keeps none of the clinician's inputs.
03The models
What the models do, and don't do
ValleySense never diagnoses. It recommends when to see a doctor and when to order the valley fever blood test (cocci serology).
- Pretrained
Cough detector
DoesChecks whether a recording contains a cough at all.
Doesn'tDoesn't say what caused the cough.
- Built by our team
Dry/wet cough model
DoesEstimates whether a detected cough is dry or wet. Most valley fever coughs are dry.
Doesn'tDoesn't detect valley fever. A dry cough is only a weak clue.
- Built by our team
Chest X-ray model
DoesScores findings on a frontal chest X-ray and shows where it looked.
Doesn'tDoesn't read the X-ray for the doctor or name a disease.
- Transparent rules
Risk engine
DoesCombines answers, findings, and model outputs into a likelihood, showing every factor.
Doesn'tDoesn't replace the blood test. Only serology confirms valley fever.
If you have trouble breathing, severe chest pain, or confusion, call 911.