Search is Powered by Google
Medical Students / Training News

Local Teaching Physician Develops A Stethoscope To Simulate Body Sounds, Ideal For Teaching Facilities

Main Category: Medical Students / Training
Also Included In: Medical Devices / Diagnostics
Article Date: 16 Nov 2008 - 0:00 PST

email icon email to a friend   printer icon printer friendly   write icon view / write opinions   rate icon rate article
Current Article Ratings:

Patient / Public:not yet rated

Health Professional:not yet rated

Article Opinions: 0 posts

Frustrated by the lack of credible auscultation sounds for teaching physical exam scenarios, Dr. Paul Lecat of Akron General Medical Center and NEOUCOM has developed and patented his own teaching device. For the first time, abnormal sounds can be "played" on a live patient-actor in a realistic way. It can also enhance the repertoire and realism of high-fidelity mannequins, commonly used in medical training.

The Ventriloscope is a hand-held transmitter activated by the instructor or standardized patient that sends any one of 12 possible sounds to the students receiving stethoscope.

"In this way, the student hears the correct auscultory finding in real time and context which greatly adds to the realism and their retention, " says Lecat.

Developed over the past 3 years with the aid of Patrick O'Keefe Jr. of O'Keefe Electronics Inc in Wellington Ohio, the device utilizes a specialized chip made by Nordic Semiconductor of Oslo, Norway. The unique chip allows the transmitter and receiving stethoscope to communicate with each other without creating or picking up interference from other sources and uses 4Mbit/s bandwidth to deliver CD-quality uncompressed, streaming wireless audio.

The 12 wave file sounds are contained on a changeable standard SD card allowing the user to record and play any other sounds of their choice. Any heart, lung, or bowel sounds; Korotkoff (including auscultatory gaps) , vascular bruits and positionally dependent sounds can be played at the appropriate time during the physical exam.

The Ventriloscope has only been available for 2 months and is already in use by over 20 medical teaching facilities worldwide. It's versatility and ease of use allows it to be used by classroom instructors, students, and standardized patients or on Mannequins.

The Ventriloscope




Customized Homepage Weekly Newsletters Daily News Alerts
Home About Us News Licensing Free Website Feeds Free Tools & Content Links Tell a Friend Accessibility Help / FAQ Article Submission Contact Us
Urology
ADHD Autism Diabetes

add medical news today to your facebook

medical news gadget

Add to Google


developers
website gadget code
website news code
medical news rss feed links


customize your homepage


These are the most read articles from this news category for the last 6 months:
Top Article Star
Medpedia Launches Giant Wikipedia-Like Medical And Health Encyclopedia
23 Jul 2008
Cyberspace is buzzing today with news of Medpedia, a global collaboration wikipedia-type project that will offer a massive amount of up to date medical and health information for free to anyone with an internet connection...


LASIK Surgery - Trading in Lenses for Laser
LASIK Surgery - Trading in Lenses for Laser

For millions of Americans, LASIK ends years of dependence on glasses and contact lenses. But there are risks, and the surgical procedure is not for everyone.

more videos are available in our health videos section.