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Giving the Humble Stethoscope an AI Upgrade Could Save Millions of Kids (ieee.org)
the_newsbeagle writes: The stethoscope is a ubiquitous medical tool that has barely changed since it was invented in the early 1800s. But now a team of engineers, doctors, and public health researchers have come together to reinvent the tool using adaptive acoustics and AI. Their motivation is this statistic: Every year, nearly 1 million kids die of pneumonia around the world, with most deaths in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The death toll is highest among children under the age of 5. The researchers, from Johns Hopkins University, designed a smart stethoscope for use by unskilled workers in noisy medical clinics. It uses a dynamic audio filtering system to remove ambient noise and distracting body sounds while not interfering with the subtle sounds from the lungs. And it uses AI to analyze the cleaned-up signal and provide a diagnosis.
The main reason kids in impoverished nations are dying of pneumonia is the lack of electronic AI stethoscopes. Hopefully these guys have a startup and start shipping soon.
untouched stethoscope on display on his desk
Of course the one he actually uses he keeps stored in the refrigerator.
Have gnu, will travel.
This article sounded a lot more interesting when I misread the title.