The device will be Health Canada-approved. We don't have the money required to go after FDA approval, but for a device like this, it doesn't really matter.

tarek : )

This is one of the interesting differences I've noticed between my first-world and underserved colleagues. The former think a stethoscope is a quaint fashion accessory. The latter look at it as an indispensable diagnostic tool. After all, who cares about hearing a little murmur if you have an ultrasound in your pocket and can assess ejection function on the fly?

My colleagues in Gaza have sharper clinical skills for exactly this reason, and it's why they need these tools.

tarek : )

Since it's an open design, I welcome its mass production! The goal here is to get this stuff out there for doctors to use, regardless of how.

tarek : )

Hello,

Thanks for your comments. I'm the guy quoted in the article, and you're right that in some cases (e.g., Gaza), a political solution would de-necessitate a cheap and readily printable stethoscope. However, The Gaza strip is blockaded. While in theory medical equipment should be allowed in according to this partial (if old) list from Gisha, you can see from various reports (e.g., this one from MSF that in practice medical equipment and supplies are very, very short. My personal experience on the ground validates this. Even those who are in favour of the continued blockade don't argue the shortages, only the reasons why.

So, for Gaza, get this one out of your head. There is no supply truck coming. No shipment docking. No airlift. If the Gazans want stethoscopes and don't want to spend a month's salary on it, they have to make it. In other parts of the world, it's a strictly financial proposition: Want a high quality, validated stethoscope? You gotta pay a month (or more) of salary. Very few can afford to do that, and so the crappy stethoscopes come into play.

It's also obvious to me that you've never needed to use a stethoscope. I have yet to hear a cheap stethoscope that sounds as good as a Littmann cardiology III (the gold standard) - except for ours. Don't believe me? The testing regimen is indeed simple and well-documented in the literature. Go ahead and test it and publish your results.

Re: Pulse oximetry, our design will be clinical grade and will be able to do O2, carboxyhemoglobin and methemoglobin. Trust me when I tell you that doing that for under $100 is impressive. Ours will be about $15 with a display, and less without. The ECG is similarly engineered to a high standard and will be comparable with the $5k models in terms of parts and sensitivities.

Here we've found a way to make this gourmet item for cheaper in a decentralized way and lose nothing in terms of quality. You're asking why don't they just get some pop-tarts and be done with it. No thank you: Not good enough for my patients.

tarek : )

Hello,

I'm the person quoted in this story. The 30c is the stethoscope head. The other parts are also already available (ear tube; ear plugs; Y piece). The tubing is generic silicone tubing that can be sourced from many places.

However, what we've found is that the bulk of the quality is in the head. Get a good head, get good quality. Those super-cheap stethoscopes are indeed available all over the place, but if you've ever used one, they are... terrible. The stethoscope I use day to day in practice in a first world academic emergency now uses our head plus a $5 stethoscope body. It works as well as my Littmann Cardiology 3 does ($208.25 when purchased here). However, the blockade in Gaza means that those $5 bodies might not come in (ali baba or otherwise), so we've made the whole thing printable and available. People in Gaza or other places that don't get regular mail delivery can recycle their waste plastic into stethoscopes.

To me, it doesn't matter what a hospital or ministry wants to use - just the head or the whole thing. That's why we made it modular and testable. Pick what you want. Test it to make sure it's as good as the gold standard. Off you go.

tarek : )

Hello, I am the person who gave the talk at CCC. We found that regardless of whether the issue was access (such as with the blockade in Gaza) or finances (such as with very poor countries), spending the money on a 3D printer made more sense. A printer could perpetually produce stethoscopes and other equipment with minimal further inputs. Also, the sovereignty of each ministry of health or country creating their own equipment to suit their local needs is a huge plus.

tarek : )

I find it wonderful that people are striving for what must seem like 'little' freedoms. I've recently come around to the idea that these small cracks become the gaping, festering ulcers of our society when left unchecked. OS