Eko Devices, a digital medical device startup, announced that it has received US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance to launch Eko Core, a new digital stethoscope that can wirelessly stream heart sounds to a HIPAA-compliant smartphone app and integrate heart sounds directly into a patient’s electronic health record (EHR).

According to the company, the Eko Core stethoscope enables clinicians to switch between analog and digital modes. The Bluetooth-connected mobile app, available on the Apple App Store, reportedly allows clinicians to view a heart sound waveform, save heart sounds directly to a patient’s electronic health record, and securely collaborate with a cardiologist for a second opinion.

Eko Core digital stethoscope

Eko Core digital stethoscope can be used to stream heart sounds via a mobile app for viewing as a waveform, securely saving to a health record, or collaborating with a cardiologist.

“The beauty of the Eko Core is that it captures the heart sounds in a streamlined way that has never been done before, interfacing seamlessly into our traditional exam without requiring any extra effort,” said John Chorba, MD, cardiologist at the University of California, San Francisco. University of California, San Francisco’s Department of Cardiology is leading Eko’s ongoing clinical trial, and Eko reports that the Stanford University Department of Medicine will be the first institution in the country to deploy the device to its internal medicine residents as part of an ongoing institutional pilot.

Eko reports that is also developing a decision support algorithm, a “Shazam for Heartbeats,” that is expected to be included with the mobile app after undergoing a separate FDA review and completing trials.

Founded in 2013 at the University of California, Berkeley SkyDeck accelerator, Eko Devices received the American Heart Association’s Emerging Health Technology Award and participated in the Stanford University StartX Med and FOUNDER.org accelerator programs. Eko Devices CEO Connor Landgraf and Eko’s additional co-founders, Tyler Crouch (CTO) and Jason Bellet (COO), all UC Berkeley engineering and business school graduates, are considered the youngest team to receive FDA clearance for a Class II medical device.

The Hearing Review also has featured the One digital stethoscope from Thinklabs Medical, which is tailored to hearing-impaired clinicians.

Source: Eko Devices (Eko) 

Photo credits: Eko Devices