Electronic stethoscope Thinklabs One, has developed technological advances aimed to help keep healthcare workers safe during the COVID-19 pandemic by allowing Safe Distance Auscultation.

This is the process by which doctors can listen to patients’ hearts and lungs from a safe distance with the use of external speakers, or earbuds or headphones that fit over or under personal protective equipment (PPE). The Thinklabs One is compatible with any listening device with a standard headphone jack, including Beats, Bose, and Apple products.

Various initiatives around PPE have been released to help doctors during the pandemic; Thinklabs One helps doctors listen to patients’ heart and lungs. Currently in use at medical facilities including Johns Hopkins, Mount Sinai, and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the Thinklabs One features over 100X amplification compared to a traditional acoustic stethoscope.

Thinklabs One has no tubing - just a universal size jack, so you can connect speakers, headphones, or a Bluetooth transmitter to listen from a distance. Healthcare workers are using Thinklabs One to safely auscultate from a distance, either by using headphones or speakers to listen to patients, or by setting up telemedicine to listen to patients from one room to another.

It is used in telemedicine practices, as it allows doctors to capture high-fidelity recordings of patients’ heart and lung sounds on mobile devices or computers, and gives them the ability to play back recordings to reference their patients’ progress over time. Thinklabs has also created unique partnerships with video conferencing providers including Zoom and the HIPAA-compliant telemedicine platform VSee, to provide best-in-class telemedicine capabilities with the device.

Created by Clive Smith, an electrical engineer with more than 20 years of experience in the electronic stethoscope space, Thinklabs One helps hospitals manage the spread of infectious diseases, which proved especially essential during biocontainment of Ebola. Thinklabs One supported doctors at hospitals that were on the frontline during the Ebola epidemic in the U.S., including Bellevue Hospital Center in New York, the Nebraska Medical Center, and Emory Healthcare.

Clive Smith, CEO and founder of Thinklabs, said: “Doctors and the many healthcare professionals who are working tirelessly to help treat COVID-19 patients are on the frontlines of this crisis; their health is incredibly important to protect. PPE is hospitals’ first line of defence; using compatible technology is the most innovative and advanced way to manage infection rates in these very close quarters.”