iStethoscope: Just another gimmick?

I remember our family doctor as a very tall, stern looking man but nevertheless I always enjoyed going to the doctor’s (call me strange if you will), and found it particularly fascinating when the doctor took his stethoscope from around his neck and said very gently “this may feel a little bit cold”.

Future generations may be robbed of this experience, due to the arrival of the latest medical tool on the market: the iStethoscope. The iStethoscope application for the iPhone was originally developed as nothing more than toy. Now, with record numbers downloading the free version of the application, many are asking whether it will eventually replace the traditional stethoscope. Apparently you press the microphone of the iPhone against a patient’s heartbeat and the phone records the sound and produces both a phonocardiograph and a spectrogram. Would you trust your doctor to check your heartbeat with the iStethoscope?

A recent mingle trend survey revealed that around 49% of Brits would be quite happy to put their trust in an iStethoscope, and men, who have a reputation of being “technology-mad”, are more trusting than women. It is worth mentioning here that approximately a third of Brits are still irresolute on this topic. Surprisingly, it is the older age-group of 60-69 years who are the most trusting; 63% would be at ease with the iStethoscope. These results could be due to the fact that they are better informed about this topic than the younger participants (18-19years), amongst which only 29% would trust the iPhone application.

The iStethoscope is one of those technological developments that we just have to accept: “resistance is useless”. However, I have just two concerns, firstly what would happen to the traditional children’s doctor kit (with mandatory plastic stethoscope), will we see toy iStethoscopes hitting the stores? Secondly what happens if the doctor receives a phone call when measuring the heartbeat?

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