21st Century Stethoscope

As much as clinicians rely on stethoscopes, they haven’t really changed much in 200 years. But with advances in digital data collection, analysis and storage, the humble stethoscope is finally undergoing some much needed updates.

One such device, known as Duo, combines a stethoscope (for listening to heart and lung sounds) with an electrocardiogram (ECG) in a digital platform that enables data to be captured anywhere for telemedicine and remote monitoring applications. Instead of simply listening for heart irregularities, high resolution displays allow the signals to be visualized for more detailed analysis. And soon, artificial intelligence (AI) will permit automated interpretation of many cardiac abnormalities including arrhythmias, valve disease and congestive heart failure.

Although Duo has been approved for patient use as a stethoscope and ECG device, diagnostic algorithms will require separate testing and evaluation for specific abnormalities. For example, asymptomatic left ventricular dysfunction (ALVD) is a disorder that rarely presents symptoms, but is often a precursor to heart failure. By training an algorithm on more than 45,000 sets of patient data, a team of clinicians was able to achieve diagnostic accuracy of 93 percent as compared to the “gold standard” echocardiogram, a test that can cost upward of $750.

With escalating health care costs and the need for more specialized care, devices like this will play an important role in providing faster diagnoses and earlier intervention, all of which translate into better patient care.