Abstract: A method for diagnosing a malady of a patient from sounds of the patient including the steps of: making a digital recording of the sounds of the patient; processing the digital recording to extract a multiplicity of features for sub-segments of each of a number epochs of the digital recording; determining deviation scores from a probability distribution for each epoch based on extracted multiplicity of features; applying a test vector derived from the deviation scores to a pre-trained decision machine; and presenting a diagnosis of the malady on the basis of an output from said decision machine.