Allison interviews Paweł Elbanowski, COO of StethoMe, about their electronic stethoscope for use in the home. StethoMe is a medical device that can be used by a non-professional to detect abnormal sounds in a person’s respiratory system. It allows you to listen to a person’s lungs at home and get an immediate and reliable examination result.
StethoMe is a small circular device, about the size of the chest piece of a regular stethoscope but without the tubing. It is held against various areas around the lungs while the sounds it detects are wirelessly sent to the StethoMe mobile app.
The app collects the lung sounds and sends them up to StethoMe servers where they are processed to check breathing sounds and patterns. If StethoMe detects an abnormal condition such as wheezes, rhonchi, fine crackles, or coarse crackles, a profile of the lungs’ sounds can be shared with a doctor for a professional evaluation of their condition and follow-up if required.
StethoMe is a Class IIa medical device certified in the European Union. It is expected to be approved for use in the U.S. in 2025.
Learn more at https://stethome.com
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Transcript of Interview
Allison:
When you’re walking down the aisles at CES and you see a baby wearing a stethoscope, you simply have to stop.
I’m here with Paweł Elbanowski from StethoMe.
What is it you’re showing us here today?
Paweł Elbanowski:
StethoMe is an electronic stethoscope for home use. So we are, with this solution, able to check, being at home, the first symptoms of lung problems.
You just have to put StethoMe on your chest while it’s connected to the mobile application, and you are getting instant information on whether there is a problem in your lungs or not.
Allison:
Let me describe what he’s got on his hands because we do an audio-only podcast as well as video.
So it’s a disc, maybe an inch tall, and it’s a disc that he’s just holding up against his chest, and it’s got a little display, and that’s going to be listening to your lungs.
Paweł Elbanowski:
Yes.
This is a set of microphones which allows you to record good quality audio for further analysis in our AI algorithms in the cloud.
Allison:
So this connects to your phone, but then it’s going to connect up to the internet and analyze what it’s hearing?
Is this a medical device?
Paweł Elbanowski:
It is a medical device, Class 2A, certified in the European Union, not yet in the US.
In 2025, we will be able to sell it in the US.
Allison:
So that seems like a lot of information has to go into that. I mean, normally you have to have a doctor to do this.
Paweł Elbanowski:
Yes, but our solution was designed and produced especially for those who often go to a doctor’s office.
So with this solution, they can stay at home and check regularly without each time connecting to a doctor’s office.
But if there is a problem, they can share the link with the report to a doctor and do the full remote consultation and full remote diagnosis of the lung problem.
Allison:
So if you’ve got asthma, for example, and things are getting bad, you’d be able to record that essentially and get it to your doctor?
Paweł Elbanowski:
Yes, the biggest value we are giving is for asthma patients, for chronic disease management, because they need it on an everyday basis, and this solution supports such problems.
Allison:
That’s fascinating.
So is there anything else you need to show us? You want to show us anything on the app?
Paweł Elbanowski:
No, in the application, you are just connected to the device and record the data.
Full analysis is going in the cloud, and the report contains information about what type of abnormalities were detected.
So here we have this summary of the information, the red light. So there is a problem detected, but here we can see the full analysis of each point.
So we are calculating and showing on a continuous scale the pathology problem of wheezes, wrong height, coarse crackles, fine crackles, to let you and the doctor compare over time the problem in your lungs.
And doctors can listen to those sounds remotely, just like they used to do on a regular basis during visits.
Our system annotates with the precision of 10 milliseconds in each pathology during the hospital patient recording.
Allison:
Wow, so for those who can’t see it, we just watched the display that’s essentially like a frequency diagram, kind of, right?
And over time, it’s showing little red spots and little peaks, and it’s got scales for wheezes, rhonchi, coarse crackles, fine crackles, and he was able to play that back.
Paweł Elbanowski:
So that sounds characteristic, as I mentioned, of asthma, pneumonia, laryngitis, bronchitis, COPD, COVID.
So all diseases, both chronic and non-chronic, that are connected to lung problems.
That’s why this solution helps both families with kids without chronic diseases and also patients with chronic diseases like asthma or COPD.
Allison:
Wow, that is fascinating.
So the company is StethoMe?
Paweł Elbanowski:
Yes, and the product is also StethoMe because we are a company with one product.
Allison:
Oh, there you go.
And would they find it at stethome.com?
Paweł Elbanowski:
Yes, .com.
Allison:
.com, very good.
And so, it’s already available in the European Union?
Paweł Elbanowski:
We are selling it in the European Union, France, the UK, and Poland.
Allison:
And how much does it cost?
Paweł Elbanowski:
149 euros.
Allison:
Really? Holy cow.
Is there a subscription service?
Paweł Elbanowski:
It’s a one-time fee for the device, and in addition to this, there is a yearly subscription of 49 euros.
Allison:
That’s not bad for your health—to not go to the doctor, be able to send it in, get a prescription update maybe.
That sounds really good.
Well, thank you very much, Paweł. This is very, very interesting.
Paweł Elbanowski:
Thank you very much.