Short version:
☝title, something that can be clipped onto scrubs or worn around the neck. Also easy to clean - hard surfaces that can be wiped down with alcohol, no cloth coverings or anything.
Long version:
Nursing student here. Basically I’m trying to build a stethoscope that doesn’t need to be inserted into my ears.
I have some hearing loss, and currently use hearing aids, which has posed a frequent annoyance / hazard at my clinical rotations when it comes time to listen to my patient’s heart and lung sounds. I can’t use a normal stethoscope with the hearing aids in, cuz it shoves them way too deep into my ear canal (doesn’t feel great); so I’ve just been popping the fuckers out and using the stethoscope normally when needed. …but I hate doing that, cuz hospitals are disgusting - there’s literal and metaphorical shit on everything, so screwing with the hearing aids mid shift is 100% introducing pathogens into my ears.
At my last clinical site, one of the nurses had a bluetooth stethoscope that seemed like the miracle solution I needed - it’s basically a stethoscope bell with no tubing, and it pairs with bluetooth headphones. She let me try it out, so I paired it with my hearing aids, and… heart beats sounded like two pieces of metal clanking against eachother. Total flop, clinically useless. Fuck.
So I whine to my audiologist, and eventually we figure out that the issue is that heart and lung sounds range from 20-100 hz; and my hearing aids are designed to amplify human speech, which is about 300-3000 hz. The speakers in my hearing aids are not physically capable of playing heart and lung sounds (that clanky metal sound was just the tiny bit that overlapped with the hearing aid’s range). More fuck.
So, I don’t think my hearing aids are going to be part of the solution here, but I’m still seeing potential in the bluetooth stethoscopes: but instead of pairing it with bluetooth headphones, since again the ear canals are already occupied, instead pair it with a bluetooth speaker that I can clip onto my scrubs or use the kind that hangs around the neck.
Poking around the internet, there are tons of those types of bluetooth speakers, but they never seem to advertise the hertz range and I’m worried about getting a whole setup built, then running into the same issue with the new speaker not playing the sounds I need to do an actual nursing assessment. And those bluetooth stethoscopes are expensive as fuck, so if I’m going to dive in to this, I want to make sure I don’t screw it up.
What do you all think? Any brands or specific products you’d lean to?
Also, bonus question: putting yourself in the patient’s shoes: how would you feel if your nurse dropped in rocking a setup like this? If it’s playing through normal speakers, YOU the patient would be able to hear your own heart and lung sounds during my assessment - my thought was it’d be great for patient education: “That clicking sound when you exhale is called crackles, which means there’s fluid in your lungs, so…” Would that make for a decent patient experience, or be offputting or intimidating? I’ve been a surgical tech for like a decade, so my perspective is pretty skewed in terms of how much info is too much info.’
Thanks all!
I dont know if they fit with your hearing aids, but maybe look into bone conducting headphones. I have Openrun Shokz Pro and they work pretty good with music. They have a waterproof version which is good for your hygiene needs.
Your Bluetooth speaker around the neck idea might be hard to achieve. The wavelength of a 100hz signal is around 3,5 meters and is getting bigger the lower you get. This means you need more energy and bigger drivers for true reproduction of low frequencies. A 100hz speaker might get heavy around the neck.
Sidenote: When I’m wearing my Shokz I sometimes get asked if I wear hearing aids.
I actually have a pair of shokz - they’re awesome! I don’t think they’d work for this specifically though - they struggle with low ranges, and one of the Bluetooth stethoscope websites specifies that bone conduction isn’t a good match.
…might be worth a shot though - sounds quality doesn’t need to be amazing, it just needs to be audible.
Give em a shot. They should work if you pitch-shift them with some simple software to make the 20hz sound like 50hz or whatever.
Ooh. OOH! Okay so I’m kind of an idiot when it comes to tech, but that sounds like a high-potential option. How would I go about doing that?
Thousand way to do it, like this: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.stonekick.tempo
But most platforms have decent DJ or audio software for this.
I’ll need to dig into this a bit. If I’m going to use my phone as a bridge between the stethoscope and hearing aids, I’ll need something that can boost the pitch in real time. I don’t want any patient data saved onto my phone. Some of the Bluetooth stethoscopes have a corresponding app that can save sound clips, but that strikes me as risky from a HIPAA standpoint.
Anywho, DJ software didn’t even cross my mind, so thanks! Awesome idea!
Sounds like you want small guitar or DJ hardware like: LEKATO Mini Pitch Shifter Pedal to try out the concept. If you have a musician shop in your area, try their selection.