Cheap, 3D-Printed Stethoscope Challenges Top-of-the-Line Model

mask.of.sanity writes: Tarek Loubani, an emergency physician working in the Gaza strip, has 3D-printed a 30-cent stethoscope that beats the world's best $200 equivalent as part of a project to bottom-out the cost of medical devices. Loubani together with a team of medical and technology specialists designed the stethoscope and tested it against global standard benchmarks, finding it out performed the gold-standard Littmann Cardiology 3. They now intend to make a range of ultra-low cost medical devices for the developing world.

It cost about US$10,000 to develop, and has been released as an open source model for anyone to use. Loubani says the project is following the footsteps of the free software movement and aims to replace expensive proprietary solutions. He hopes that within 25 years the devices will be common-place in the Third World, and be the "Apache of the medical world."

Comments

Re:Do doctors still use them?

[Dr_Barnowl]

You need the stethoscope to detect the return of blood flow in the artery - the sphygmanometer is used to apply measurable pressure to your arm to occlude the flow of blood, you use the stethoscope to listen for the turbulent flow.

And they don't need calibrating, because the numbers in blood pressure measurements are "millimetres of mercury" - and that's literally what these instruments use (they're a glass tube with a suspended mercury column attached to the arm cuff).

They're much more accurate, reliable, and fast than using the robot version which repeatedly inflates and deflates the cuff and has a sensor attached to the bladder which detects your pulse. As a bonus they're also much less uncomfortable and distressing to the patient (because you can do the reading much more quickly and not cut off the flow of blood in their arm for a minute or so...) and thus give less false positives of high pressure because of stress....