If a doctor used a stethoscope with an app to diagnose me, I would get a second oppinion
this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2025
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If you want a second opinion feel free to ask the roomba.
The fridge would also like a word.
Conveniently, you would have already gotten the doctor and the AI's, no need to look any further! /s
I have a stethoscope modification. It's a little device that goes right into the tubing. It's primary use is an amplifier to make it easier to hear quiet sounds.
It looks perfectly normal other than the bulge.
It uses Bluetooth to transfer recordings to my phone.
But the stethoscope works normally otherwise you probably wouldn't notice unless you knew what you were looking for.
Of course my software is not that fancy it doesn't diagnose.
I'm also not a doctor. So you don't have to worry about me.
Audio recordings in this would be useful, but the rest just kills the product.
If done well, training AI on this kind of data could be a good thing. It could make say your smartphone (for example) tell you that you have a problem, be used as a first diagnostic and so on. Invaluable in countries where doctors are scarce for example.
If I understand correctly the patients consent is never asked before their data is collected, I could easily see this data being sold to advertising companies. Imagine having a heart attack and when you get home all you see is ads for life insurance.
Giving each person in a hospital a $300 stethoscope + $200 phone + $120 for the subscription + a whole new IT team is simply too expensive when hospitals already struggle to afford basic supplies like vaccines.
This would be a major HIPAA violation if implemented in the US - patient heart sounds are defintely protected health information and using it for AI training without explicit consent is a legal nightmare waiting to happen.
Well privacy laws haven't stopped companies so far.
Also this is the only company that makes stethoscopes so if you don't allow them to collect your data its just "too bad so sad".
I said if it's done correctly, so with consent etc. ofc.
You are totally wrong though IMO when it comes to costs, check this startup out if you are curious, I don't know how they collect their data but their aim is to bring cheap heart scans to the world. You might have an IT team (IDK) but not at each hospital, and probably those things could be standalone if extreme cost savings are needed, otherwise you'd like them connected so when there is a potential problem the real doctor can take over.