Saying Silicon Valley has its finger on the pulse of technology has never been so accurate. The Eko Core from Eko Devices aims to revolutionize the way physicians interact with one of their oldest and most trusted tools — the stethoscope.

By wirelessly streaming heart sounds to a HIPAA-compliant smartphone app, and integrating those sounds directly into the patient's EHR, the Eko Core aims to bring pulse monitoring into the modern era. With the recent announcement of FDA approval, they seem to be well on their way.

"The stethoscope is an iconic and universal part of the medical practice, a tool which nearly every doctor, nurse, and student learns to use," said Dr. John Chorba, a cardiologist from the University of California, San Francisco, in a statement. "The beauty of the Eko Core is that it captures the heart sounds in a streamlined way that has never been done before, interfacing seamlessly into our traditional exam without requiring any extra effort."

Chorba and his colleagues at UCSF are leading Eko's clinical trial, while Stanford is slated to be the first institution in the country to actually deploy the device to its internal medicine residents as part of an ongoing institutional pilot.

According to the Eko's website, the device can be purchased for $199, and has EHR partnerships with Dr Chrono, AllScripts, Practice Fusion, Cerner, Epic, and Athena Health. The app is only available for Apple devices at this point, and the device is most compatible with Littmann Cariology III-style stethoscopes.

It's worth noting that there are other initiatives underway to revolutionize the stethoscope. One of which is through the increasingly compact portability of ultrasound devices, which allow physicians to peer inside the cardiovascular functions of their patients without the risk of ionizing radiation.

Eko Devices is also working on what they're calling a "groundbreaking" algorithm, or "the Shazam for heartbeats", that will support decision-making and be included in the mobile app once it receives its own FDA clearance. Shazam's co-founders were among the investors in Eko's $2.8 million funding round.

"As a team of young entrepreneurs, Eko has the ability to introduce delightful software and advanced decision support tools on top of the devices physicians already know and, most importantly, trust," said Connor Landgraf, Eko's co-founder and CEO. "We've started by pairing the oldest and the newest tools in the medical toolkit — the stethoscope and the smartphone."

Since its invention in early 19th century France, the stethoscope has been a crucial ally in the diagnosis of heart disease and the monitoring of cardiovascular health. Today, in the U.S. alone, over a half million people die from heart disease every year, according to the CDC.

Improving the front lines of how physicians tend to patients with cardiovascular problems could potentially have a major impact on those numbers.

Landgraf and his two fellow co-founders comprise a team considered to be the youngest to ever receive FDA clearance for a Class II medical device.

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