Bone hearing stetoscope
Channel: UNLVECE
Date: 2019-06-07

Within the field of medicine, auscultation is defined as the action of listening to sounds from the heart, lungs, or other organs, typically with a stethoscope, as a part of diagnosing a patient. Listening to these organ sounds provides invaluable information about the status and vital signs of an individual. Creating a device that allows a provider to listen to the pitch, faintness, and effort of the heart and lungs wirelessly would greatly improve the efficiency of both intrusive and non intrusive medical operations (surgery, therapy, etc).  A healthcare provider would not be tethered by the length of a traditional stethoscope, and could freely perform tasks while listening to how the patient’s body reacts on a real-time basis. This would be achieved through the use of an electret condenser microphone in conjunction with the body of a traditional stethoscope. Additional implementation through bone conduction would allow a surgeon, for example, to maintain their hearing in order to communicate with an assistant during surgery, while listening to the patient’s physiological response to an invasive surgery. This allows for multiple avenues of communication between a practitioner, medical assistants, and the patient. Moreover, using bone conduction instead of digital audio would allow providers with hearing loss or hearing disabilities to provide full and adequate patient care. Clearly, a wireless stethoscope with bone-conduction technology would be incredibly advantageous to the medical community.