The stethoscope has been a vital tool for health professionals since it was invented in 1816 by French physician Rene Laennec. HeartBuds was tested and results showed that it recorded sounds as well as doctors can hear them with high standard stethoscopes. “This could change the way we approach patient exams in the future”, Bello said.
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Stethoscopes have been around for nearly 200 years, but they might soon be replaced by a new device powered by smartphones.
Although, interpreting should still be made by trained health care providers, this new device and app can revolutionize the way doctors examine their patients.
When the HeartBuds app is activated, sounds from the hand-held device can be played through the smartphone speaker and images appear on the screen showing rhythmic blips that correspond with each sound. Furthermore, doctors can now control the volume and record sounds for future reference.
The technology is great, but we wanted to see how our device actually fared against more traditional stethoscopes.
With HeartBuds, doctors use a portable plastic listening device shaped much like the head of a traditional stethoscope that is plugged into a smartphone.
Importantly, it’s been found to be just as good at picking up sounds as the best stethoscopes on the market, and significantly better than disposable models.
“That’s very disconcerting”, said study author Valerie Danesh. “These findings may cause a few to reconsider that practice”.
When they are not using a disposable model doctors are using a pricier one that touches hundreds of patients a month, and, despite their best efforts, the spread of bacteria is still a real threat.
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“Because the HeartBuds device doesn’t have earpieces, we no longer have to worry about that”, said Arnold Einhorn, a cardiologist and one of the developers. “Really, the possibilities are endless and the future of this technology is just now coming into view”. Researchers rated the HeartBuds stethoscope as comparable in sound quality to the more traditional and electronic stethoscopes. Patients with chronic illnesses like COPD and heart failure, for example, can use them to monitor their conditions at home. As simple and unchanged as it is, the stethoscope has helped doctors diagnose cardiovascular and respiratory diseases easily or lead them toward presumptive diagnoses that lead to a more focused set of clinical examinations.
