iPhone app may replace stethoscope

The app could render stethoscopes obsolete

A new app from University College London (UCL) turns an iPhone into a fully functioning stethoscope.

UCL computer scientist Dr Peter Bentley developed the app in collaboration with cardiologist researchers. The app allows users to listen to heartbeats and unlike traditional stethoscopes, is able to show the heart waveform on its screen.

In addition, users can email the audio file and spectrogram to colleagues.

The app, known as iStethoscope pro, makes further use of the iPhone platform with its shake function. Users can shake the iPhone to hear the last eight seconds and see a phonocardiograph display and a spectrogram.

"The app was an experiment, basically a bit of fun," said Bentley. "Then lots of cardiologists got in touch and I was overwhelmed with interest from the profession. One guy flew over from America to look at the app. He wanted extra features like the spectrogram display. Cardiologists make their diagnoses using this. They like to see the spectrogram analysis of the sound."

Bentley went on to explain that cardiology professionals have told him that the app works better than expensive bespoke medical equipment.

"It actually works better than existing digital stethoscopes. Because it is designed to play mp3 files and is mass produced, the audio hardware in a smartphone is of higher quality than is normally used in stethoscopes," he said.

About 500 downloads are being registered daily for the app, which costs 59p for the professional version, complete with spectrogram.

"The only other medical equipment that can do a real-time spectrogram display costs £13,000," Bentley said.

Future potential medical uses of smartphones include monitoring blood pressure and conducting ultrasounds.