In 1816, French doctor René Laennec invented one instrument that allowed doctors to listen to human hearts and lungs. This device—a stethoscope—eventually evolved from a simple wooden tube into a lightweight version with two earpieces that most doctors today wear around their necks.
Eko Health, a startup founded in 2013, is bringing this ubiquitous medical tool into the digital age by augmenting it with AI. Over the past decade, Eko has sold its stethoscope to more than 500,000 doctors and healthcare providers. Because they have been used on millions of patients, the company has amassed a large dataset of chest sounds and electrocardiogram (ECG) information, which Eko used to develop various algorithms to detect heart disease.
“The stethoscope examination is incredibly inconsistent and inaccurate. Patients receive late diagnoses or are misdiagnosed,” said Connor Landgraf, CEO and founder of Eko Health. “We want to bring precision using artificial intelligence that could allow patients to receive earlier, more competent diagnoses.”
Landgraf explained that with a traditional stethoscope, a doctor can’t always hear the subtle differences between health and disease. “With our artificial intelligence, they can be combined [heart sounds] with a heart rate assessment and then ask the AI to interpret that. You almost have the skills of a cardiologist in the pocket of a primary care physician or even a nurse or frontline health professional,” he said.
In April, the Eko stethoscope received FDA clearance to use its AI to help detect fthe first signs of heart failure during a routine medical examination. This is the company’s third algorithm to receive FDA approval. Eko’s AI has also recently been cleared for detection heart murmurs, which could be a sign of abnormal heart valves. (A Massachusetts General Hospital study found that Eko’s AI identified more than twice those patients with heart disease compared to primary care physicians.)
Eko’s clinical milestones helped it raise a $41 million Series D round with participation from ARTIS Ventures, Highland Capital Partners, NTTVC and Questa Capital. The latest capital injection brings the company’s total funding to $165 million.
The new funding will be used to train artificial intelligence algorithms to detect lung conditions such as asthma and pneumonia, and to sell the device and accompanying software to doctors outside the US.
“Of all the things I’ve invested in, Eko might be one of the most practical because you can easily use it to change outcomes,” said Vas Bailey, partner at ARTIS Ventures. Bailey lost his father to heart disease on his 11th birthday. “We can find more cases of heart abnormalities when you go to see a doctor for a routine check-up. Maybe as part of your screening, we can help save your life. Maybe it could have helped save my dad’s life.”
While no other company has built AI into a stethoscope, other startups using AI to detect heart disease include Ultromics and CardioSignal.
