Aug 29, 2010

iStethoscope Pro in a medical journal

Some exciting news about my iphone app iStethoscope Pro today. There has been more media interest (watch this space for details), and more interest from cardiologists, this time in Greece. The app was also featured on Apple’s AppStore as a “hot app.” But, perhaps the most exciting news is that research by cardiologists who made use of the app to gather heart audio has just been published in the Journal of Medical Devices. The article even has the app name in its title! For those who prefer a full citation, here it is, with a link to the abstract:

Dustin Palm, Stan Burns, Trichy Pasupathy, Eric Deip, Brittney Blair, Misty Flynn, Amanda Drewek, Matt Sjostrand, Brian Stephenson, Glenn Nordehn. (2010) "Artificial Neural Network Analysis of Heart Sounds Captured From an Acoustic Stethoscope and Emailed Using iStethoscopePro" J. Med. Devices 4, 027531 (2010); doi:10.1115/1.3443737

Peter Bentley (September 2, 2010 11:25 PM):

Hi Dan, the app was used by the cardiologists listed above in their research, for which they obtained all necessary permission. We also have ethical permission for the storage of anonymised heart sounds donated by volunteers. The app is not intended for the treatment of patients - it is a fun demonstration of technology that in the future may be developed into a real medical device. Right now from a regulatory perspective it's an audio amplifier on a phone, to be used for entertainment purposes.

Dan Rosen (September 2, 2010 2:50 PM):

Can you comment on what you faced from validation and/or regulatory agencies before this could be used in the treatment of patients? Is this subject to the validation of medical devices?

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