USB-Powered Mobile Stethoscope Developed at MIT

One of healthcare’s most recognized tools is getting a 21st-century makeover.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers have developed a USB-powered mobile stethoscope. Plugged into a smartphone, its companion app transforms the device into a low-cost diagnostic tool, which healthcare workers and nonspecialist physicians can use to diagnose lung conditions.

Lung diseases such as pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, and lung cancer cause more than 14 percent of deaths worldwide, according to industry data. Others like asthma reduce the quality of a person’s life. These diseases hit the developing world the hardest, because the major risk factors—air pollution, coal-fired indoor cooking, and smoking—are more prevalent there.

“At the same time, there aren’t enough specialists to see the patients and many of the general practitioners lack training in diagnosing pulmonary diseases,” Daniel Chamberlain, a second year graduate student in MIT’s Technology and Policy Program who is building the electronic stethoscope, told The Boston Globe. He also is a fellow at MIT’s Tata Center for Technology and Design.

Rich Fletcher, a research scientist at the institute’s D-Lab, is the principal investigator on this mobile-based stethoscope project. He and Chamberlain are collaborating with Rahul Kodgule, a doctor and senior researcher at the Chest Research Foundation in Pune, India, to field test the design in a clinical trial that is believed to be the world’s first comprehensive study to diagnose pulmonary disease using a mobile platform.

The traditional method of diagnosing lung disease requires large machines that cost more than $100,000. “Our method just requires a mobile stethoscope and a peak flow meter (it measures how well your lungs expel air), that together cost less than $50 and will work with any Android smart phone, which many doctors in India have already,” Fletcher to the Globe.

Earlier this year, the team won $100,000 in the Wireless Innovation Project contest sponsored by Vodafone Americas Foundation. The annual competition, which supports high-potential mobile and wireless technology solutions, is now in its seventh year. Typically, the award-winning innovations pertain to health.

Doctors use the stethoscope to listen closely to the sounds of the patient’s body, then ask questions. They can determine whether a wheeze, a common symptom of various lung diseases, should be investigated further.

The mobile-based stethoscope records wheezes and a peak flow meter measures how well a patient’s chest expels air. The patient then answers a questionnaire. The product’s software takes the lung sounds and the other data, runs an analysis, and provides diagnostic feedback to the physician or healthcare worker. “These algorithms are our true innovation,” Fletcher said.

“The system can act as a screening tool to flag patients for a more thorough check-up,” added Chamberlain.

The funding from Vodafone will enable the team to field test their system designed to diagnose pulmonary disease. “The results of our platform will be compared against the gold standard, which is the $100,000 pulmonary function-testing lab,” noted Fletcher.