Eko Devices, a smart medical device startup company, announced that its Eko smartphone stethoscope has been cleared by the FDA. Doctors can take digital recordings of patient heartbeats using the popular Bluetooth wireless technology.
The recordings are wirelessly transmitted to a smartphone app, which doctors can chart the heart- beat or send the recording to a specialist for further review. That means patients won’t have to wait to see a specialist for the results.
The older stethoscopes can be modified for the digital technology at $199. Eko also will sell a smart stethoscope for doctors who abandon the analog devices entirely for $299. The 23 year old Eko co-Founder Jason Bellet acknowledges that it’s not the first smart stethoscope out there, but Eko is the first to connect to a smartphone and wirelessly transfer a recording for analysis.
While much of the medical field has gone digital, it’s been a slow transition for the nearly 200-year-old stethoscope. Eko received $2.8 million in funding and is only just beginning its cardiovascular innovations.
Eko is conducting the smart stethoscope trials in two San Francisco hospitals to pool heartbeat data from 200 kids and 200 adults. This data will be analyzed and tested to help develop a Shazam-like heartbeat functionality that Eko is developing. It under goes separate FDA-testing, which is slated for early 2016. This is another example of technology innovation to make Americans healthier!
~ Bob Larson is a technologist, photo journalist, and Marketing Director for 50Plus Media Solutions.