#46 - Rethinking the stethoscope and its use - Diana van Stijn - Lapsi Health
When we think of the term "medicine," one of the symbols that comes to mind is the stethoscope.
Its use in almost every physical examination by healthcare providers makes it one of the most iconic and widely recognized medical devices.
Despite the emergence of digital technologies and the first electronic stethoscopes, their operating principle and design still rely heavily on the patent filed by Dr. David Littmann in the 1960s.
But in the era of miniaturization and artificial intelligence, there is a reason to believe that the stethoscope is ripe for a true transformation.
Among those who share this opinion are Lapsi Health and the team of Diana van Stijn.
Inspired by her experience as a pediatrician and the central role of body sounds in her profession, Diana envisions a new kind of stethoscope—without tubing, fitting in the palm of a hand, and leveraging the latest technological advancements to better equip physicians.
This vision gave birth to Keikku, a next-generation digital stethoscope.
Beyond rethinking the format and use of the stethoscope for doctors, Diana and her colleagues imagine a future where patients can use it themselves, paving the way for continuous auscultation.
In this episode, we explore how Diana and her team are turning this vision into reality, and what it could mean for the prevention, detection, and monitoring of diseases, extending far beyond pediatrics.
With humor and enthusiasm, Diana also shares a few secrets about her approach to balancing clinical practice, motherhood, and entrepreneurship in healthcare!
Timeline:
00:00:00 - Diana’s background as a Pediatrician, startup Co-Founder, and former National Team Swimmer
00:11:10 - The role of body sounds in medicine
00:15:08 - Early ideas on disrupting traditional stethoscopes
00:22:21 - Building Keikku, a portable, intuitive, and radically modern stethoscope
00:26:43 - Incorporating AI in the interpretation of body sounds
00:30:50 - Moving toward continuous auscultation and getting Keikku into the hands of patients
What we also talked about with Diana:
Shavini Fernando
MedTech World
Cirque du Soleil
Jhonatan Bringas Dimitriades
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Computed Tomography
As Diana mentioned during the episode, you can learn more about Keikku here and the other devices in Lapsi Health’s pipeline via their official website.
To dive further into some of the topics mentioned in the episode, Diana recommends reading Intelligence-Based Medicine: Artificial Intelligence and Human Cognition in Clinical Medicine and Healthcare by Anthony C. Chang and the article published on JMIR Publications that she co-authored, Promises, Pitfalls, and Clinical Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Pediatrics by Bhargava H. et al.
You can follow Lapsi Health’s activities on LinkedIn, and get in touch with Diana via LinkedIn too!
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