More Than Just A Heartbeat

Ayu’s smart stethoscopes will help in spotting cardiac and pulmonary disorders early.

- Prathamesh Mulye

The ubiquitous stetho-scope has a very long history. It was in 1816 when French physician René Laënnec invented the device, partly driven by the fact that he was uncomfortable with the practice of doctors placing their ears on the chests of patients, especially women. Arthur Leared created a two ear piece binaural stethoscope in 1851, and the design was later perfected by George Cammann in 1852.

The stethoscope has not seen any major innovation since then but that’s changing in an Internet of Things (IoT) world. Adarsha K and Tapas Pandey, two IIT Bombay researchers, are looking to make the conventional stethoscope smarter and interconnected. Ayu Devices, a start-up incubated this April by the duo, has created a device called AyuLynk to provide effective auscultation for diagnosis of heart and lung diseases. The start-up is operating out of IIT Bombay’s technology business incubator, Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE). The prototype is a compact module which can amplify heart and lung sounds when attached to a conventional stethoscope.

“After our device is attached to a stethoscope, the heart and lung sounds are sharper and clearer,” says Adarsha. The device can also record the sounds and convert them into an audio file which can be transferred across platforms.

According to Amgad Makaryus, associate professor at Northwell Health, New York State’s largest health care provider, turbulent blood flow manifests as murmurs in the coronary artery and conventional stethoscopes lack the auscultation power to detect these murmurs. “A digital stethoscope can convert acoustic sounds to electronic signals, and, further amplify these sounds for optimal listening,” explains Makaryus.

INCEPTION OF AN IDEA