Medical technology is having to move fast to keep up, and Minnesota's 3M is at the forefront of that. They recently introduced a new product that is having a big impact in our current world.
"It quite honestly couldn't have come at a better time," says Kristi Barnett, Senior Director of Medical Devices at 3M.
3M's new digital stethoscope is quickly becoming a game changer.
It amplifies sound, has active noise cancellation, and the ability to record and share what the person using it hears. That's huge for patients in rural areas or when quick access to your cardiologist isn't possible.
“With this technology we could have a public health nurse come to a patient's home, or that patient could go into a clinic and see their primary care physician, and the care provider can record what they are hearing and then share that with the cardiologist. Or, they could even engage in a telehealth session and consult with a cardiologist, which would eliminate the wait for an evaluation, or the need to travel to see the cardiologist at another location," says Barnett.
3M teamed up with a company called Eko for the software which also has an algorithm to detect heart murmurs. But what no one could have anticipated was just how handy it would be during a pandemic.
“You can envision a scenario where you are treating someone in the hospital with COVID, and you're in your full PPE, and you can auscultate on a patient, and another clinician can be outside of the room seeing what they're listening to, hearing what they're listening to, and that's reducing the number of staff that are being exposed to any infections that may be there in the room,” says Barnett.
3M says it is also releasing two new apps to help with remote medical education. They allow students to listen to real heart sounds and for teachers to interact with the students.