Portugal develops tech for safe remote monitoring of COVID-19 patients

Portugal's prestigious University of Coimbra announced on Tuesday that its researchers had developed a technology that enables the remote auscultation (listening to the internal sounds of the body) of COVID-19 patients, avoiding the use of a traditional stethoscope and the risk of contagion, reported Xinhua.

The technology uses an electronic stethoscope that transmits the sound from the chest piece to the doctor through a smartphone application, the university explained in a press statement.

The stethoscope is an essential instrument in the practice of medicine that doctors have been forced to abandon due to protective measures and the imposition of a safe distance from coronavirus infected patients, said the statement.

According to the university, the fact that the traditional stethoscope cannot be used creates difficulties in the diagnosis and proper evaluation of patients with COVID-19 and requires the use of other, more expensive diagnostic methods, such as X-rays or ultrasound.

"Basically, the scientists developed a 'software' that allows remote connection between the stethoscope placed on the patient and the doctor" and "the connection can be made by cable or via Bluetooth," it said.

"With pulmonary auscultation, characteristic sounds of different bronchopulmonary clinical situations can be heard and distinguished. With this solution, it will be possible to obtain this useful information remotely and allow a sustained therapeutic position to be taken," said pulmonologist Carlos Robalo Cordeiro from the Pulmonology Service of the Hospital and University Center of Coimbra (CHUC).

The application, which will be made available free of charge to the entire international medical community, was developed by a team of scientists from the Faculty of Science and Technology of the university in partnership with doctors from the CHUC.

The researchers will also place the source code (software) in the public domain, so that other scientists can contribute to improving and even expanding the functionality of the solution, it said.