As a health-professional-in-training, this really has a specific use and none other. Absolutely nobody that can use a standard scope will use one of these; the digital conversion / inevitable compression will kill the faint sounds that are diagnostic and why we purchase expensive stethoscopes in the first place.
However, for its intended use (hasmat teams, first responders, etc) this could really be valuable. Is it going to diagnose a specific cardiac disorder? No, but it will let them tell quickly if a person is alive without having to find a possibly very weak pulse.
That having been said, we have had the technology to do this for what - 10 or more years? The fact that nobody had bothered to put it together before this point tells me that the demand is as limited as I suspected.
Wonder what makes you feel that it will kill faint sounds etc... That has to do with the sensitivity of the listening device. The bluetooth wireless technology in itself will not distort the signal. (Else, bluetooth stereo headphones would've never sold in the first place... )
In fact, this technology can be pretty useful -- doctors can now also record cardiac data in digital form directly out of a stethoscope without the need for other bulky instruments... This innovation may open up a new wave of medical instruments... :-)
(As to why this comes so late if technology used existed 10 years before... It could have a lot to do with hardware, and costs. For example: almost every laptop sold today has bluetooth compatibility, etc... )
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As a health-professional-in-training, this really has a specific use and none other. Absolutely nobody that can use a standard scope will use one of these; the digital conversion / inevitable compression will kill the faint sounds that are diagnostic and why we purchase expensive stethoscopes in the first place.
However, for its intended use (hasmat teams, first responders, etc) this could really be valuable. Is it going to diagnose a specific cardiac disorder? No, but it will let them tell quickly if a person is alive without having to find a possibly very weak pulse.
That having been said, we have had the technology to do this for what - 10 or more years? The fact that nobody had bothered to put it together before this point tells me that the demand is as limited as I suspected.
Wonder what makes you feel that it will kill faint sounds etc... That has to do with the sensitivity of the listening device. The bluetooth wireless technology in itself will not distort the signal.
(Else, bluetooth stereo headphones would've never sold in the first place... )
In fact, this technology can be pretty useful -- doctors can now also record cardiac data in digital form directly out of a stethoscope without the need for other bulky instruments... This innovation may open up a new wave of medical instruments... :-)
(As to why this comes so late if technology used existed 10 years before... It could have a lot to do with hardware, and costs. For example: almost every laptop sold today has bluetooth compatibility, etc... )