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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."
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."
Will the patients see any of this reduced cost?
Or will it go straight to higher profits?
Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
Yes they do. Particularly when they're doctors in poor or war-torn areas that cannot afford access to the electronic device whose name you are unsure of.
Just so you know.. those devices are unreliable unless calculated weekly.
Two doctor visits ago, I showed a 175/110. I panicked... they panicked. They got a stethoscope and I was 122/78.
Last doctor visit, they were no longer using the electronic devices and had gone back to stethoscopes.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
If we assume that the part could be produced via injection molding (not always true for odd geometries), then we still have the issue of distribution --
How do you get those 10,000 parts to the people who need them? Do you mail them out individually to all of the doctors that need them? Do you ship cases of them to NGOs and then let them distribute them?
There's still going to need to be *some* distribution from the 3D printer to the doctor, but as the printers become more wide-spread, the odds of the doctor having access to one goes up. With the ability to print prosthetic parts, I would hope that hospitals would be some of the early adopters ... this just might help a new hospital that isn't already kitted out w/ stethoscopes to justify the purchase.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
Reminds me of my electronic tyre pressure gauge. It was extremely good - as a random number generator. Moved back to analog.
I'm not a doctor, I don't know any, at least any that would be interested in trying (there's no way any doctor in my area would verify on his or her own that this works), but I'm still willing to try out this project myself. You know, for grins.
That having been said, people seem to be developing projects left and right and bending over backwards to make 3D printing a thing.
I can't say whether or not it will be, but it's a lot of fun trying to figure it out.
Some people don't believe in fairies. I don't believe in The Patriarchy.
2 scopes or a decent printer and a bunch of 30 cent scopes...
When you cant win, ad hominem.
I suspect that $0.30 cost is just the materials used in making it. Add in design costs, buying the machine, hiring people to watch over the machines, HR, accounting, sales, and support, that stethoscope can easily cost a full $3.00.
Takes both, actually.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
Stethoscopes don't need to be 'tested' much. You hear stuff or not. They're not FDA approved.
We've have cheap stethoscopes that work pretty well for ages. The big deal with the Littman Cardiology scopes is that they are built like tanks and you can get replacement bits for them. MRIs use plastic stethoscopes in the MRI suite because metal ones have this annoying tendency to get rocketed into the 1 Tesla magnet at inopportune times. They cost a couple of bucks.
I'm glad they've solved their problem with a 3D printer. They could have just as well solved it with knowing a good Chinese supplier.
And pulse oximeters / EKGs - good luck with that. First off you can buy a good pulse ox for about $15, retail. I'll bet you can get them for half price in bulk. And you can buy a used, serviceable EKG for $50-100 - the big costs being the thermal paper they use.
Geez, next big thing will be a 3D printed gizmo connected to the Internet....
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
If it's such a good design, then get some factory in China to injection mould 10,000s of them for pennies.
This. 3D printing is relatively expensive and poor quality compared to a manufacturing process. This is why they are rapid prototyping and not manufacturing machines. Oh sure, they make some that are more robust and make higher quality prototypes, but they would never recoup the cost of such a machine despite the savings on stethoscopes. It would be far cheaper to manufacture the stethoscopes in China. Cheaper than 30 cents? Probably not, but then 30 cents is a lie anyway as it leaves out all of the more expensive factors of the manufacturing process.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
The reason a littmann is made of thick heavy materials is because hearing the subject is a whole lot easier than keeping outside noise out. I'd imagine a plastic head would be subject to a lot of outside noise.
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....
If the design is possible to be injection moulded, just mass-produce the things for a few pennies apiece. But it's possible this is not the case - 3D printing can produce shapes that are impossible to injection-mould.
I had a cheap 10 stethoscope that I got from a nursing supplies store, was designed like a Russian military surplus device but my colleagues were forever asking to borrow it because they liked it's sound output better than their fancy £50 Littmanns.
I never saw anything special about the Littmann units but I have absurdly good hearing ; as med students we had classes in physiology labs and my hearing tested at -10dB across the board all the way up to 22kHz which is exceptional ; I can still detect those high-pitched whines that some shopkeepers use to discourage young people from hanging around.
If this thing can out-perform the Littmann Cardiology III for pennies or dollars then I seriously hope someone mass-produces it and makes top-flight stethoscopes a cheap commodity instead of a badge of elite status (only senior cardiologists would shell out for one of those, paying £150 for something you might lose on an exhausting 80 hour shift is not a choice that most junior docs would make).
My wife is a veterinarian (graduated UC Davis) and has found that expensive stethoscopes are not as helpful as having significant experience with your stethoscope. She has used an inexpensive device to pick up very faint heart murmurs and other issues that others were not able to detect with their expensive devices. I would suggest that consistency is the most important aspect of creating these stethoscopes, so that if a physician develops a significant amount of experience with one, they could switch to another device without much trouble.
Littmann is mostly about brand recognition and status ; nurses buy £3.50 cheap mass produced stethoscopes, doctors buy £50 Littmanns.
The Littmann units are arguably superior in quality. On the other hand, I had a £10 stethoscope (it costs a bit more now) built like a piece of Russian miltary surplus that all my professional colleagues wanted to borrow because they thought it sounded clearer and louder than their expensive Littmanns.
It also lasted longer - the plastic Littmann use for their tubes is prone to fatigue and cracking. The rubber tubes on this thing lasted for years.
There's nothing in the Littmann that's inherently expensive or difficult to manufacture, it's just brand recognition, patents, and the fact that it's a niche product with a limited market.
Actually, a stethoscope is used with a normal sphygmomanometer to check blood pressure.
You are technically correct, which as we all know is the best kind of correct.
I feel sorry for people that don't drink, because when they get up in the morning, that's as good as they're gonna feel
You seem to know the words but not the process. Lemme share...
You wrap the cuff around their bicep. You turn the knob and then turn it again so that you have finally locked the value. Nope, turn it again.
You pump the bulb up enough to make the wearer wince in pain - that should be good.
Cram the scope under the cuff above the joint.
You release the air with the knob too quickly so you put it back in - again, wincing is required.
Cram the scope back in.
Let the air out more slowly.
Listen and watch the gauge.
When you hear thump thump thump - note the number on the gauge.
Let more air out. Slowly...
When the thump thump thump noises stop note the number on the gauge.
Smile and nod at the patient but do not tell them anything.
I learned this when I was a young Marine. I am pretty sure it is standard practice.
Anyhow, the scope is kind of required. It lets you hear the thump thump thump noise. They probably do not have expensive equipment in the middle of a war zone. Well, no. They probably do not have expensive medical equipment. I can just see them pushing around the little cart with the attached cuff and thermometer to reach injured soldiers. Those little wheels will do well on uneven surfaces and standing up will certainly not make them a target. They can just put a red cross on it and nobody will think that makes an excellent target.
Later, I will tell you how to do injections.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
After I lost my first Littmann, I started using this one the Sprague Rappaport - I see them on medical dramas sometimes, I guess they look just as "doctory" to a props department without breaking the budget.
My colleagues liked to borrow it, it was objectively louder than the Littmann. It doesn't use the fancy free-floating diaphragm the Littmann has, it just has a thin piece of plastic. It also comes with a pouch with a bunch of different bells, earpieces, a spare diaphragm, and you can screw the fittings on and off. It was kind of the Russian Military Surplus stethoscope, being somewhat more bulky and heavy than a Littmann, but much cheaper.
Those nurses stethoscopes do cost about $5 though.
I'm betting some top-secret clauses in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership will make such noble endeavors outright criminal.
" comparing blood pressure readings from my GP (an older man) versus that of the younger nurse." I totally agree, my blood pressure often goes up too when the old man doctor leaves and a younger, far more attractive nurse comes in.
3d printing in plastic _will_ always produce worse parts than injection molding. If you don't understand this, you aren't qualified to speak.
Probably won't ever be better. But I've learned never to say never. No one would ever need more than 640K of Ram, and we've already discovered everything.
BUT!. Whoosh for maximum whooshes. You chose a throwaway comment to get wrapped around the axle with.
My point(s) as clear as I can make them :
1.The incredibly cheap prices of injection molding are related to how many of them you make. Economy of scale.
2.The setup cost is not inexpensive.
3. While a 3-D printer does not have the economies of scale of the injection molding, it does not have the setup cost.
4. The 3-D printer will be in the hands of the person needing to make the parts, and either making parts to a plan already designed, or can even design new custom one off things as needed.
And think beyond a stethoscope. There are a lot of different parts, many of them one-off, that are needed in the medical profession.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.