The Eko Core digital stethoscope aims to bring auscultation —- the ancient medical practice of listening to a patient’s heartbeat — squarely into the 21st century. It was cleared for sale in the U.S. this month.
The new-generation stethoscope wirelessly streams heart sounds to a smartphone app, which can save them to a patient’s electronic medical record. The record of a patient’s heartbeat can be viewed as a heart-sound wave form and shared with a cardiologist to get a second opinion.