Health IT, Hospitals

InTouch rolls out FDA-cleared iPad app so MDs can hear heart sounds in real time

A little less than two years after InTouch Health received FDA clearance for its RP […]

A little less than two years after InTouch Health received FDA clearance for its RP Vita Remote Presence telemedicine platform in hospital settings, it has rolled out an FDA-cleared iPad app so its platform can support a digital stethoscope component on the mobile devices. Its CS app for iPads is designed to assess heart and lung sounds in real time in acute-care settings, particularly for tele-ICU.

The previous version of its FDA-cleared system had to be used with Windows 7.

In an interview with MedCity News, a product manager with InTouch Health, Yair Lurie, said the update was needed so the RP Vita platform could better fit physician workflows and the trend to more mobile healthcare settings. He explained how it has collaborated with electronic stethoscope maker RNK Products to tweak its telemedicine platform.

Lurie pointed out that its stethoscope differs from other company models because it has Class 2 medical device clearance from the FDA. It has a separate audio channel from the main microphone for the physician’s voice. In its initial form eight years ago, the stethoscope technology was built into the USB port and it was clunky. It required a lot of extra devices and hardware and wasn’t very efficient.

Through its collaboration with RNK, a microchip was built into the stethoscope. Lurie said it worked with RNK to develop an API to capture and integrate data generated from the stethoscope with the company’s own software protocols.

The collaboration also revolves around a sound quality issue. In tele-ICU settings, for example, the first thing doctors need to assess are lung and heart sounds. The stethoscope is applied to the patient by a nurse in the room as the physician watches and listens with earphones from a remote site. The RP platform was designed to improve the sound quality for chest and lung sounds, since so much depends on interpreting their subtlety to make an accurate assessment and diagnosis.

Although RNK Products produces electronic stethoscopes for at least three other companies in the telemedicine space, Lurie pointed out that those companies classify their stethoscope device integration as a class 1 medical device. They lack the diagnostic quality its platform has. “We are the only ones that have gone through the regulatory requirements so that our platform can be used in an acute-care environment.”

There is a shortage of intensivists — the physicians that work in intensive care unit settings — and that’s only expected to worsen in the future, according to a JAMA article cited by the company. Tele-ICU programs allow intensivists to fill in care gaps, particularly for overnight shifts.

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