Doctors can now buy a Bay Area startup’s next generation stethoscope to wirelessly stream heart sounds to their smartphones and directly into their patients’ electronic records.
Advertisement
The device hooks on to an analog stethoscope, records the sound, and sends data to the app via Bluetooth so that clinicians can visualize, record, listen to, and analyze heart sounds.The app will also capture a waveform called a phonocardiogram so clinicians can review the heart’s sound in real time, to identify abnormalities.
The device has a passive mode, allowing you to hear exactly what you’d normally hear through your stethoscope as if the Eko Core wasn’t there.
Doctors who took part in the clinical trials of the high-tech sthethiscope, like cardiologist Dr. John Chorba, apparently like it.
Eko is working on a separate FDA clearance for a decision support algorithm that is now being researched at the University of California San Francisco. The goal is to support physicians treatment of patients with cardiovascular disease.
Earlier this year Eko raised a $2.8 million funding round that included music identification company Shazam’s co-founders, FOUNDER.org Founder and CEO, Michael Baum, Stanford University StartX Fund, and former senior advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, John Noonan.
Founded in 2013 at the University of California, Berkeley SkyDeck accelerator, the company has been honored with the American Heart Association’s Emerging Health Technology Award and participated in the Stanford University StartX Med and FOUNDER.org accelerator programs.
Advertisement
“Doctors can now trend a patient’s heart sounds over the course of a lifetime, something that wasn’t possible before”, Eko Chief Operating Officer Jason Bellet told me. Bellet and co-cofounders Connor Landgraf – the company’s CEO – and tech chief Tyler Crouch are considered the youngest team to receive FDA clearance for a Class II medical device.
