Apple smartphone becomes the iStethoscope

The next time you go to the doctor’s for a check up, you might find your heartbeat being monitored by an iPhone, not a stethoscope.

Well, maybe not, but it seems some medical professionals in more remote areas are finding the new iStethoscope application very useful. According to a report in the Guardian, it has been downloaded by some three million doctors.

The app, invented by Peter Bentley of the University College London, turns the iPhone into a stethoscope. It was initially created for amusement, but now the program has been made free, apparently it’s being downloaded some 500 times per day.

Apparently, in the future smartphones could potentially be used for other medical purposes, such as ultrasound scanning, if regulations would allow it. Yes, we keep checking our calendar to see if it’s April, too…