MP3 players as stethoscope replacement?

[steph1030]

that would be a useful devcice for playback and i agree to let the docs hear what we do and would most definitelty be beneficial for those "hard"cases that are hard to pinpoint to the docs etc etc

but i do believe it may have downfalls as well just like everything else

[Defiant1]

Sounds like a good idea, especially when you consider the fact that it seems like most everyone has a personal pair of headphones/ earbuds (I myself have a pair of Skullcandy Hesh over-earphones for at home on the laptops and a pair of Skullcandy earbuds for out and about/ listening to my Ipod.)

Since everyone could carry their own pair of listening devices that all have the same audio jack, services would only need 1 mp3 per rig and no more having to worry about getting ear wax/ germs from other people, plus if they lose their pair they can go pick up a cheapo pair, and with the over-ear type headphones I've found that i can hear things a lot better since it can muffle out sounds, thus you only have to worry about noise affecting the recording. The only way it could be made better is if you can listen AND record at the same time.

[Quakefire]

Its an interesting idea, you'd be able to show the ER docs how bad their lungs were before a neb for example. And the recordings are useful for teaching. I learned ECG's off of real ECG's, why not learn lung sounds from real lung sounds. They may also be able to do some signal processing to remove road noise or even sirens from the background