AusculSciences Introduces Auscul-X to Help Keep Healthcare Providers Safe During Pandemic
Company’s remote, disposable stethoscope will allow physicians and nurses to listen to heart and lung sounds at a safe distance.
OTTAWA, May 19, 2020 /CNW/ – AusculSciences™, a pioneer in developing advanced bioacoustic technologies to detect cardiovascular and pulmonary conditions, today announced that it is developing the Auscul-X™ Touchless Stethoscope System which will allow physicians and nurses to listen to heart and lung sounds at a safe distance from patients with diagnosed or suspected infectious diseases such as COVID-19.
Over 10% of those infected with COVID-19 are healthcare professionals. In response, AusculSciences has re-purposed technology from the CAD-det™ System (approved by Health Canada for investigational use) to help protect physicians and nurses during this pandemic. Using a conventional stethoscope to listen to the heart and lungs of patients with known or suspected COVID-19 forces nurses and physicians to be within arm’s reach of these patients multiple times each day. This proximity puts them at higher risk of contracting disease and requires them to don a separate set of personal protective equipment (PPE) for each patient, a time-consuming process.
Auscul-X will provide nurses and physicians the ability to listen to and visualize the sounds of a patient’s heart, lungs, and other internal organs from a safe distance, thereby reducing their exposure to infectious diseases such as COVID-19. It also reduces patient to patient transmission from possible bacterial contamination known to occur with traditional stethoscopes in patients with suspected infectious diseases.
Auscul-X includes six sensors worn on the patient’s torso. Physicians and nurses can listen to heart and lung sounds either through earbuds connected to the in-room control module, or wirelessly from outside the room on their smartphone, tablet, or workstation computer. Auscul-X is expected to optimize the workflow of healthcare providers by reducing the number of times they change in and out of PPE.
“This is an important advancement with the COVID-19 crisis and represents a major advance in improving the safety and cost efficiency of direct patient assessment,” said Cardiologist Dr. George Vetrovec, Chairman Emeritus, Pauley Heart Center, Virginia Commonwealth University. “Auscul-X is a needed and important addition to infective patient management but is far from a single event item – there are extensive opportunities for this technology to balance cost with reduced protective gear use, leading to potentially better outcomes.”
AusculSciences plans for Auscul-X to be on-market during the third quarter of this year. Auscul-X will be evaluated on critical care patients in an investigator-led study at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute planned to begin early June.
About AusculSciences
AusculSciences is a medical device, services, and software solutions company dedicated to the development of bioacoustic technologies to detect cardiovascular and pulmonary conditions. AusculSciences’ innovative approach provides physicians and nurses with actionable data to support clinical decision making, reduce the cost of diagnoses while improving patient care and provider safety.
SOURCE AusculSciences, Inc.
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