A research team has come up with clinically validated and an open source template for a 3D printed stethoscope for the application in the areas that have limited access to medical supplies. This area means the places where stethoscope is the differentiation of death and life.

Associate professor at Western’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, an emergency room physician at London Health Sciences Centre, an associate scientist at Lawson Health Research Institute, Dr. Tarek Loubani said, “It is considered as the first and only open-source medical device that is widely available and clinically validated.”

Loubani has worked as ER physician in multiple hospitals based in Gaza in the wartime when there was a high scarcity of medical supplies. The ideology of the 3D printed stethoscope was generated while handling a toy stethoscope and perceiving the functioned pretty well. This motivated loubani and a team of engineers to create an open-access template for 3D printed stethoscope which could be easily created using recycled plastic. The effort of the team is now clinically validated and results are disclosed.

Gia, the name of the stethoscope model was developed by utilizing free open source software to maintain the cost factor low and make the easy access to the code. The time required to make the stethoscope is less than three hours and has a production cost of $3. Any individual with access to ABS-grade plastic and 3D printer can create this device. As per the results, it has shown similar acoustic quality and considered as one of the best stethoscopes in the market.

The team now is looking forward to create and manufacture more of such medical devices that can be made and improved in such locations where there are scarce medical resources.