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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.
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.
This is the stuff AI (or what passes for AI) can help solve- all sorts of fiddly problems that can benefit from the introduction of a "smart tool". I'm all for smarter gadgets and diagnostics that can help give regular/untrained people the ability to deal with various problems.
I mean, HELLO, this is what computers are meant to do- to help us do things we couldn't otherwise do.
Sure, maybe the wizards at the Mayo Clinic won't use it, but they aren't the target audience. I can see where this could be useful in all sorts of circumstances. On the battlefield, for one, but also in places where people trained to decipher the sounds heard through a stethoscope are far and few between.
It's like the super-simple AEDs (Automated External Defibrillator) that you see in offices and stores- they're simple enough that almost anyone can use one to restart a heart. My office has one and looks pretty straightforward to use.
Gadgets like a smarter stethoscope could help save some lives, and that's a good thing.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
And it will only cost ten times what a normal one would AND the yearly software license will be so affordable!
All those years sine the 1800s and they haven't been able to upgrade it with a simple heating pad? I've had some stethoscopes on my chest and back that could give me pneumonia all on their own.
Free, as in your money being freed from the confines of your account.
... bullshit bingo.
It has "AI" and "for the children" in the subject, so we are starting strong today.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
I've even had one arrogant turd of a doctor have a highly polished untouched stethoscope on display on his desk... unused.
You know a stethoscope serves usually to listen, e.g. to your lungs or your heart.
If you're constantly going to the doctor to pester him about this weird skin rash that you are regularily getting on your penis, the stethoscope will be of no use.
(And about the polishing : we are supposed to rub it with disinfection before and after each single use. Of course, it's going to look pristine and polished.
Or would you prefer if we used it to help you exchange every possible virus and bacteria among all patients coming to the practice ?!)
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
You have it completely backwards. The stethoscope won't have a bad day, it doesn't have ear wax, and it doesn't have to go to school. And the data will be produced through analysis, and it will have heard more conditions than any doctor. Doctors expect pneumonia. Computers don't. They process signals and match patterns.
In the future, doctors may be rare, and involved in only the very strangest and most complex cases, while nurses with advanced diagnostic equipment handle the routine stuff. And the computers will learn from the doctors, and health care will improve as a result.
As for the beginning of your comment, there is a world-wide shortage of doctors at the moment. I don't know how it works in other countries, but in this one the AMA has made it difficult to become one in a lot of irrelevant ways, which is to say they don't improve overall quality. Washing someone out because they don't perform well in an ER environment when they might be a perfectly good practitioner in other contexts, for example. Not every doc needs to work in the ER. We cannot survive your plan.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
We need to start accepting the good enough. Better to be seen by an OK doctor right away rather than be seen by the best doctor in 6 months
Do you know what they call the student at the bottom of the class in medical school? Doctor.
I am not aware of this being an actual alternative for anyone, most people have access to exactly one doctor, the one that is close to their house and accepts their insurance...
Ken