Eko Devices (Eko) has received green signal from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to launch Eko Core, an upgraded model of regular stethoscope. The new device wirelessly streams heart sounds to a HIPAA-compliant smartphone app.

Not only this, it is also stethoscope on the market that integrates heart sounds directly into the patients’ lectronic health record (EHR). This feature will allow doctors to have a better understanding of cardiovascular disease that affects one in 4 people across the world.

The device has many exciting features. It enables doctors to switch between analog and digital modes, only stethoscope till date to do so. Now, the device is available to millions of US doctors who majorly rely on stethoscopes for physical examination of their patients.

Dr. John Chorba, Cardiologist at the University of California, San Francisco, said that stethoscope is an important part of medicine world. Every doctor, nurse and student uses it. “The beauty of the Eko Core is that it captures the heart sounds in a streamlined way that has never been done before, interfacing seamlessly into our traditional exam without requiring any extra effort”, said Chorba.

Jason Bellet, the Eko COO said, “Validating a product for the FDA is a very, very expensive and time consuming process. So raising that investment was critical for us”.

He said that the demo stage was introduced in early 2014. Since then, they have received $2.8 million in funding and now FDA approval.