81–90 of 135 posts
No pictures? Missed opportunity. Seems cool though!
The linked paper has some pictures: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0193087
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There are cheap, generic scopes (Sprague-Rappaport types) that are very sensitive but the double tube also causes a lot of noise. There are knock-offs of the Littmann scopes in the market. Then there are the scopes doctors usually buy, which are Littmann, Harvey (made by Welch-Allyn) and Heine, and a few smaller makers. No marketer of a high-quality scope wants to sell it at a $30 or less price point, and if you're g…
How long do they last? Looks like pretty solid piece of equipment, but are they damaged easily or simply clap out after few years?
That's like a little over $3/yr. Can't complain
What we need now is open-source ultrasound devices.
I can buy cheap ones online from Temu for $3. However I am comfortable with my Littmann. Littmann's last for 20 plus years.
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> has to meet regulatory standards Genuinely curious, what standards exactly, for a stethoscope?
In the UK it would be Class Im - so low risk device that sits outside the body, with a measuring functionality.
Here is an interview with one of the researchers behind this project: https://logicmag.io/bodies/tarek-loubani-on-3d-printing-in-g... It explains the project and its motivations. It's been a while since I read it (2019), but at the time I found it really fascinating and inspiring.
Really eye-opening to my western-brain that agreed with higher comments simply comparing the process with ordering a unit off Alibaba and having it delivered. Truth is, there's often a million other parameters that could come up and make a project like this really useful & practical to someone.
One day everyone will truly be against this.
The thing is that I can get just as good if not better ones (metal) for $7 all day long, and not have to spend time sourcing and assembling materials, and I don't even have to leave my house to do it.
Hmmm. Looking at: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/figure?id=10.1371/... I'm not sure I believe the graphs. For example, here's another frequency response chart of some stethoscopes: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/a-Frequency-response-of-... How is it that professional stethoscopes can be that different, and yet this 3D printed one can match a gold-standard one almost exactly? From what I can tell there…
It's a bit of a head scratcher. It would require abject incompetence on the part of jellybean stephoscope manufactorers for this to make sense. On the other hand the reason Litmann stephoscopes are expensive is target market (doctors), build quality and amortization of cost over probably a decade of use. Stephoscopes are a metanym for doctor, and doctors don't want cheap stephoscopes. It reminds me of the product to…
(taxonomy) A name that is rejected because a valid name (based on another member) already exists for the same group.
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> How long do they last? Looks like pretty solid piece of equipment, but are they damaged easily or simply clap out after few years? They last forever. Why would they break? This is like asking how long floor speakers last.
As other commenters pointed out, rubber/plastics fail. Littmann sells repair kits.