The Stethoscope as an Improved Pre-Diagnostics Device

Abstract

This report presents a design proposal of a product-service system that is supposed to facilitate cardiologists in their auscultation responsibilities. Auscultation today is usually still performed with an acoustic stethoscope, in which the cardiologist tries to recognize abnormalities concerning the patient’s heart through attentive listening.

The efficiency driven practices of modern healthcare have forced cardiologists and other medical professionals to become even more economical with their time. Currently, doctors only have a timeframe of 600 seconds to see a new patient. Since the stethoscope is almost always the first tool used for diagnosis, it can be seen as the first factor that determines if the patient reaches the “further testing threshold”. Therefore it is paramount for the general quality of healthcare that auscultation is performed in the best way possible, since this can determine whether further testing is done on the patient, or the patient is sent home. The relevance of this auscultation success is backed up even more by the fact that heart-disease is responsible for 45% of European annual deaths alone.

The problem, which is a concoction of the efficiency driven practices in healthcare combined by the neglect of auscultation in medical education and the available tools at hand, was attempted to be improved and solved by the design proposal in this report.

Together with doctors, a product-service system was created that makes use of Artificial Intelligence, seamless automation, improved ergonomics and feedback loops in order to facilitate the cardiologist during auscultation.

The design proposal aims to increase medical effectiveness and diagnostic potential, facilitating cardiologists in their auscultation responsibilities by creating a new and improved diagnostic tool in the form of an electronic stethoscope that harmonises with the efficiency of the auscultation process in an unobtrusive way; benefiting both the cardiologist and the patient.


The main part of the design consists of a physical product in the form of an electronic stethoscope supported by a system consisting of a simple Bluetooth Forwarding Application and Desktop Application.

The design proposal was qualitatively evaluated with several cardiologists during a presentation at Maasstad Hospital. It was received with great positive response on the fronts of both appearance and presented functionality.

In order to substantiate the promising outlook the design proposal elicits, long term testing with a 0-series product- service system will need to be done.