Digital Stethoscope Converts Acoustic Sound Waves into Electrical Data

BY MELISSA SUE SORRELLS GALLEY

Call to your mind an image of your doctor. 

Go ahead. I'll wait. 

Got it? I'm willing to bet that, whether your doctor is young or old, man or woman, you imagined a person wearing a white lab coat and a stethoscope.

Stethoscopes are a quintessential part of a doctor'suniform. (via: ca.gov)  

 In our national mind's eye, the stethoscope is an absolutely essential part of every doctor's tool kit. And though its design seems to have changed very little since the early 1940s, the classic stethoscope has been experiencing something akin to adigital revolution over the past several years. 

The Digital Stethoscope

Hospitals and doctors' offices are busy, often noisy places, and sometimes doctors are rushed. The digital stethoscope eliminates those problems by converting acoustic sound waves into electrical data. They amplify the body's sounds while minimizing outside background noise. 

By providing more controlled, more accurate sound amplification,digital stethoscopes provide an added level of assurance that even the lowest-frequency sounds have been heard. The ability to hear these sounds can be critical to cardiology and pulmonology diagnostics and allow doctors to prescribe thebest possible treatment plan.

Thinklabs digital stethoscope provides 50xamplification.  

What's Inside

While the components in an acoustic stethoscope are all more orless the same, what's “under the hood” of digital stethoscopes varies widely. The sound transducer is the most essential component of a digital stethoscope as it determines the diagnostic quality. 

When it comes to transducers, some designs rely on a piezoelectric crystal, while other companies use an electromagnetic diaphragm with a conductive inner surface. The latter method responds to sound waves identically to a conventional acoustic stethoscope, preserving the sound of an acoustic stethoscope while providing the benefits of amplification.

Block diagram of a digital stethoscope.     

Additionally, audio codec electronics and speakers are important considerations when selecting a digital stethoscope.

High Tech and Beyond

As if the ability to amplify your heart sounds isn't revolutionary enough, the latest digital stethoscope models include wireless and Bluetooth technology as well as audio recording and playback. Some come bundled with software that records acoustic data and outputs audio and visual displays. 

As these tools continue to develop, digital stethoscopes and their high-tech brethren will enhance diagnostic capabilities and make remote diagnosis increasingly simple.

 Have you ever tried a digital stethoscope? Or are you looking forward to seeing one during your next visit to the doctor's office? Let us know in the comments section.