mid-day 43rd anniversary special: Shaping the future, one medical device at a time

The bluetooth stethoscope transmits the data to the app on a smartphone or laptop and can also record the sound

AYU device, a first-of-its-kind bluetooth stethoscope, is one of the inventions that helped doctors during the Covid-19 pandemic amid concerns about maintaining social distance. This also helped patients get access to expert doctors from a different part of the state or country.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation first started using Ayu device, a digital stethoscope which is connected to an app via electronic signal and bluetooth and provides contactless reading and data sharing with the other medical practitioners, during the pandemic. And now, the device will be used by the civic body to help patients at civic-run hospitals.

"The device proved to be very useful in the Covid-19 pandemic. However, it is important to note that the use of this device beyond the pandemic is important. The skill of predicting the disease from sound waves alone came to a doctor after many years of practice. Not every place has an expert doctor and this technology can be used there. Ayu devices could be the next big innovation in healthcare," said Dr Lancelot Pinto, pulmonologist.

Adarsh K, co-founder and CEO of Ayu Devices (right) Researcher Tapas Pandey gives a demonstration of how the device works

Dr Pinto added, "With this, a doctor can check patients from a distance while wearing a PPE kit. If we are talking about telemedicine and distance medicine, this is a useful device as the recorded sound can be sent anywhere." "The Bluetooth stethoscope is a unique technology that helps society and civic doctors. So, as a civic authority, we decided to help them reach common people and are going for a pilot project," BMC chief IS Chahal said, adding, "This device can add more feasibility to medical treatment. The Society for Mumbai Incubation Lab to Entrepreneurship (SMILE) of BMC is now funding this product."

The Ayu device has also been recognised by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India with the CAWACH (Centre for Augmenting War with Covid-19) 2020 Award and the India Innovation Growth Programme 2019. "The idea of a bluetooth stethoscope came forward in 2017 while thinking about telemedicine. This was put to use in some hospitals during the pandemic and we are getting good results," said Adarsh K, co-founder and CEO of Ayu Devices.

He added, "We have seen the same stethoscope for generations. We believe this bluetooth device can change the definition of telemedicine. A doctor sitting in Mumbai can hear the sound of lungs of a patient sitting in Gadchiroli too. This can even record the sound and share the same with other practitioners." "We received patents from India and the United States. Now, we are in the process of getting patents from 60 countries," he said, adding that several states in the country have already started using the device.

A technology marvel, apart from being a digital stethoscope, it can also amplify sounds and translate them into electronic signals which can be further amplified. The electronic signals from the stethoscope can also be displayed as a phonocardiogram on any smartphone or laptop, thus enabling contactless reading and data sharing with other medical practitioners.