Innovation of the week: A digital stethoscope

An "iconic tool of doctors" is getting a 21st-century upgrade, said Steve Lohr at The New York Times. Eko Core is a digital device that attaches to a conventional stethoscope and records and amplifies heart sounds, sending the audio and sound-wave images to an iPhone app. From there, the data can be shared with hospitals and clinics.

The device could help doctors make more accurate diagnoses by enabling them "to hear and see the pattern of a patient's heart rhythms in greater detail," as well as quickly compare heart sounds from a recent visit to those from a year or two ago. The Berkeley, California-based startup is also working on an algorithm that compares a patient's heart rhythms with a cloud-based data library of heart sounds, so that doctors can quickly ascertain whether the patient's results are abnormal or normal. Eko Core, which is FDA approved, starts at $199.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up