{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,16]],"date-time":"2026-07-16T15:09:34Z","timestamp":1784214574833,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":46,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,28]],"date-time":"2025-03-28T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1743120000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Digit. Health"],"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title>Background<\/jats:title><jats:p>Hypernasality, a hallmark of velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI), is a speech disorder with significant psychosocial and functional implications. Conventional diagnostic methods rely heavily on specialized expertise and equipment, posing challenges in resource-limited settings. This study explores the application of OpenAI's Whisper model for automated hypernasality detection, offering a scalable and efficient alternative to traditional approaches.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title><jats:p>The Whisper model was adapted for binary classification by replacing its sequence-to-sequence decoder with a custom classification head. A dataset of 184 audio recordings, including 96 hypernasal (cases) and 88 non-hypernasal samples (controls), was used for training and evaluation. The Whisper model's performance was compared to traditional machine learning approaches, including support vector machines (SVM) and random forest (RF) classifiers.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results<\/jats:title><jats:p>The Whisper-based model effectively detected hypernasality in speech, achieving a test accuracy of 97% and an F1-score of 0.97. It significantly outperformed SVM and RF classifiers, which achieved accuracies of 88.1% and 85.7%, respectively. Whisper demonstrated robust performance across diverse recording conditions and required minimal training data, showcasing its scalability and efficiency for hypernasality detection.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title><jats:p>This study demonstrates the effectiveness of the Whisper-based model for hypernasality detection. By providing a reliable pretest probability, the Whisper model can serve as a triaging mechanism to prioritize patients for further evaluation, reducing diagnostic delays and optimizing resource allocation.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fdgth.2025.1552746","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,28]],"date-time":"2025-03-28T10:59:21Z","timestamp":1743159561000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":14,"title":["Leveraging large language models for automated detection of velopharyngeal dysfunction in patients with cleft palate"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"7","author":[{"given":"Myranda Uselton","family":"Shirk","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Catherine","family":"Dang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jaewoo","family":"Cho","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hanlin","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lily","family":"Hofstetter","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jack","family":"Bijur","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Claiborne","family":"Lucas","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Andrew","family":"James","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ricardo-Torres","family":"Guzman","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Andrea","family":"Hiller","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Noah","family":"Alter","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Amy","family":"Stone","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Maria","family":"Powell","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Matthew E.","family":"Pontell","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,28]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"246","DOI":"10.1002\/ajmg.c.31381","article-title":"Genetics of cleft lip and cleft palate","author":"Leslie","year":"2013","journal-title":"Am J Med Genet C Semin Med Genet"},{"key":"B2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2089","DOI":"10.3390\/jpm12122089","article-title":"Current concepts and challenges in the treatment of cleft lip and palate patients-a comprehensive review","volume":"12","author":"Paradowska-Stolarz","year":"2022","journal-title":"J Pers Med"},{"key":"B3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"591e","DOI":"10.1097\/PRS.0000000000006614","article-title":"Challenges in the successful reconstruction of cleft lip and palate: managing the nasomaxillary deformity in adolescence","volume":"145","author":"Posnick","year":"2020","journal-title":"Plast Reconstr Surg"},{"key":"B4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"378e","DOI":"10.1097\/PRS.0000000000011312","article-title":"What\u2019s new in cleft palate and velopharyngeal dysfunction management: an update","volume":"154","author":"Smetona","year":"2024","journal-title":"Plast Reconstr Surg Aug"},{"key":"B5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"852e","DOI":"10.1097\/PRS.0000000000000184","article-title":"Cleft palate repair and velopharyngeal dysfunction","volume":"133","author":"Hopper","year":"2014","journal-title":"Plast Reconstr Surg"},{"key":"B6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"36","DOI":"10.1111\/ocr.12112","article-title":"The cleft care UK study. 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