By Maya Menashe, Science and Technology Editor
The stethoscope is a symbol of the hard work, dedication and education required for a physician to earn their respected title. Regardless of specialty or the number of years a doctor has been in practice, the stethoscope is a critical tool for auscultation, listening to the sounds of internal organs, whether it is used during a physical examination, to listen to arrhythmic heart patterns or to monitor internal sounds during pregnancy.
As medicine continues to evolve in this era of technological advancement, so too does this essential instrument. Today, the stethoscope is being enhanced by artificial intelligence to act as a “partner” in diagnosing life-threatening diseases in order to help diagnose diseases earlier and more precisely than ever before.
The stethoscope was first invented in 1816 by a young French physician named Dr. René Théophile-Hyacinthe Laennec. According to the most widely accepted story, Dr. Laennec was examining a 40-year-old female patient who suffered from shortness of breath. At the time, physicians practiced auscultation by simply placing their ear on a patient’s chest. However, this often led to misdiagnosis or even no diagnosis at all. To improve on this method, Dr. Laennec rolled up a piece of paper into a tube, placed one end on the patient’s chest and placed the other end to his ear. He found that this method amplified breath and heart sounds and made them much clearer and more effective for diagnosis. By 1820, the stethoscope was available across Europe, and over time, it has developed into different variations tailored to specific medical needs. In the early 1960s, distinguished cardiologist Dr. David Littmann patented a new stethoscope design that was bought by 3M. Stethoscopes today are still based on variations of Dr. Littmann’s design, making it the standard for clinicians worldwide today.
Eko Health wants to change that. The technology company, recognizing that the stethoscope has changed little in function in its 200 years of existence, has taken the legendary medical instrument and completely reimagined it as an AI-powered disease detection platform.
Eko Health’s device works much like a traditional stethoscope: physicians conduct the exam as usual by placing it on the patient’s chest. However, unlike a standard stethoscope, it enhances heart and lung sounds with greater clarity through amplification and noise cancellation, reducing background interference and allowing for more precise listening. Beyond that, its FDA-approved AI technology analyzes heart sounds and ECG (electrocardiogram, a test that records the electrical activity of the heart) data in real time while simultaneously displaying the patient’s heart rhythm on the device, providing a broader and more comprehensive picture of cardiac health. In just 15 seconds, the system can identify indicators of heart disease — such as atrial fibrillation, murmurs and low ejection fraction — and enable faster diagnoses.
The AI stethoscope is especially valuable in detecting more severe conditions and managing complex cases such as peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM), an uncommon form of heart failure that develops late in pregnancy or within the months after childbirth. Researchers from Mayo Clinic’s Department of Cardiovascular Medicine conducted a randomized controlled clinical trial involving nearly 1,200 participants across six hospitals in Nigeria, the country with the highest rate of PPCM. Their findings demonstrated that the use of the AI stethoscope enabled earlier detection of PPCM. Because symptoms can worsen significantly during pregnancy and may potentially endanger a patient’s life, early detection is critical. The study showed that the AI stethoscope identified twice as many cases of pregnancy-related heart failure compared to the control group that received routine care and screening. By preventing the underdiagnosis of PPCM and other forms of heart failure, the AI stethoscope has the potential to directly save lives.
Although the AI stethoscope promises to be a revolutionary tool, it does come with limitations inherent to the use of new technology. One concern is that healthcare providers may become increasingly dependent on it and on AI more generally for answers to medical questions, potentially eroding their own clinical skills. Furthermore, the accuracy of AI in interpreting sounds of the heart and lungs depends heavily on the quality and diversity of its training data, which may not always account for outlier patients and atypical presentations. While the technology can give the impression of being 100% accurate, the nature of real clinical encounters being so diverse may reduce its performance. If used as a replacement for rather than a complement to clinical judgement, this new technology may actually inhibit physicians from practicing the best medicine.
About one in 1,000 to one in 4,000 pregnant women are affected by PPCM in the United States every year. Almost 6.7 million individuals 20 years or older were affected by heart failure in 2024. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. The technology of the AI stethoscope has the potential to transform how early and often these serious conditions are diagnosed, as well as how physicians practice medicine and patient care. This device will enable general physicians to detect cardiac and pulmonary disease with the accuracy of top specialists. A physically tiny advancement can bring medicine one step closer to huge breakthroughs in healthcare.
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