The auscultation of the heart using a stethoscope is the standard examination method worldwide to screen for heart defects, thus identifying murmurs. It requires that examining physicians have acute hearing and extensive experience, as there is no currently available technology that can perform this test. Achieving an accurate diagnosis remains challenging for various reasons including noise, high heart rates, and distinguishing innocent from pathological murmurs. Since objective screening tools are unavailable, the risk of human error is increased and the current reliance on subjective screening creates concerns surrounding consistency, accuracy and objectivity. This is evidenced by the fact that up to 70% of asymptomatic children who are referred to specialist evaluation or echocardiography because of a suspected murmur are not suffering from heart disease. The result of the reliance on subjective screening methods is a high number of patients who end up undergoing unnecessary heart testing. In addition to patient anxiety and inconvenience, the unnecessary costs in the US alone amount to over one billion USD annually.
CSD Labs' medical device eMurmur is a clinically tested screening tool for the objective detection of heart murmurs. eMurmur analyses and classifies heart sounds acquired via electronic stethoscope or other appropriate recording hardware. The eMurmur system is comprised of an app that runs on a mobile device; server-based heart sound analysis medical software; and a corresponding auscultation database. eMurmur can be utilized by medical professionals performing auscultations in their daily routine right at the patient’s side. Moreover, eMurmur offers medical professionals the capacity to electronically document auscultation findings, integrate them into electronic patient records, or share data with other health care professionals for expert opinions.
