Chao Li

h-index2
2papers
102citations

2 Papers

7.9LGMay 20, 2024
What Radio Waves Tell Us about Sleep

Hao He, Chao Li, Wolfgang Ganglberger et al.

The ability to assess sleep at home, capture sleep stages, and detect the occurrence of apnea (without on-body sensors) simply by analyzing the radio waves bouncing off people's bodies while they sleep is quite powerful. Such a capability would allow for longitudinal data collection in patients' homes, informing our understanding of sleep and its interaction with various diseases and their therapeutic responses, both in clinical trials and routine care. In this article, we develop an advanced machine learning algorithm for passively monitoring sleep and nocturnal breathing from radio waves reflected off people while asleep. Validation results in comparison with the gold standard (i.e., polysomnography) (n=849) demonstrate that the model captures the sleep hypnogram (with an accuracy of 81% for 30-second epochs categorized into Wake, Light Sleep, Deep Sleep, or REM), detects sleep apnea (AUROC = 0.88), and measures the patient's Apnea-Hypopnea Index (ICC=0.95; 95% CI = [0.93, 0.97]). Notably, the model exhibits equitable performance across race, sex, and age. Moreover, the model uncovers informative interactions between sleep stages and a range of diseases including neurological, psychiatric, cardiovascular, and immunological disorders. These findings not only hold promise for clinical practice and interventional trials but also underscore the significance of sleep as a fundamental component in understanding and managing various diseases.

4.1LGOct 11, 2025
Transformer Model Detects Antidepressant Use From a Single Night of Sleep, Unlocking an Adherence Biomarker

Ali Mirzazadeh, Simon Cadavid, Kaiwen Zha et al.

Antidepressant nonadherence is pervasive, driving relapse, hospitalization, suicide risk, and billions in avoidable costs. Clinicians need tools that detect adherence lapses promptly, yet current methods are either invasive (serum assays, neuroimaging) or proxy-based and inaccurate (pill counts, pharmacy refills). We present the first noninvasive biomarker that detects antidepressant intake from a single night of sleep. A transformer-based model analyzes sleep data from a consumer wearable or contactless wireless sensor to infer antidepressant intake, enabling remote, effortless, daily adherence assessment at home. Across six datasets comprising 62,000 nights from >20,000 participants (1,800 antidepressant users), the biomarker achieved AUROC = 0.84, generalized across drug classes, scaled with dose, and remained robust to concomitant psychotropics. Longitudinal monitoring captured real-world initiation, tapering, and lapses. This approach offers objective, scalable adherence surveillance with potential to improve depression care and outcomes.