Can Your Voice Predict Heart Failure? With Oliver Piepenstock

In this episode of The Crux of Cardio, host Jordan Burgin sits down with Oliver Piepenstock, CEO and co-founder of Berlin-based Noah Labs, to explore how voice biomarkers could transform the way we detect and manage heart failure.

Oliver shares the journey from a quant finance career to founding a company that uses AI to hear what the human ear cannot, subtle changes in voice that signal worsening heart failure up to three weeks before hospitalisation. He discusses pitching Mayo Clinic with almost no money left, why clinical evidence beats everything, and how radical transparency shapes Noah Labs' culture as they pursue dual FDA and MDR clearance.

Key Topics:

• How voice analysis can detect worsening heart failure 2–3 weeks before hospitalisation

• Why the current standard of care (weight scales) falls short

• The founding story: from Entrepreneur First to Mayo Clinic

• Pursuing FDA and MDR clearance simultaneously

• Combining venture funding with non-dilutive grants

Related Insights:

• How AI adoption differs in regulated vs. unregulated healthcare

• The advantage of centralised FDA expertise over fragmented European notified bodies

• Why algorithm performance will be the deciding factor in market adoption

Core Challenges:

• Heart failure is the number one hospital admission reason in the elderly and the top cost driver for health insurers globally — yet detection still relies on weight scales that catch deterioration only days out, often too late to intervene effectively.

• Noah Labs has developed voice biomarker technology achieving close to 90% accuracy in clinical trials, giving clinicians enough lead time to adjust medication remotely and prevent hospitalisation.

🎧 Tune in now to discover how your voice could become the next vital sign in cardiac care.