Stemoscope Pro: Ambitious Technology, Problematic Implementation

Posted by on May 19, 2025

The Stemoscope Pro is a small digital stethoscope with an intriguing feature set. The Stemoscope Pro is FDA cleared for auscultation as a medical device. Useable both directly with wireless headphones or paired to an app this device potentially could provide an accessible wireless stethoscope option for in person and telehealth exams, in our review however we found the device to be hampered by pairing, software, and usability challenges. The Stemoscope Pro is a device with a lot of good ideas, and compelling hardware, but getting value from this device for most users may prove challenging.

About this Device:

The Stemoscope Pro is a wireless stethoscope, connecting only through Bluetooth protocols. The only physical port on the device is a USB-C port which is used only for charging. The device has a small form factor, and other than when charging works completely without wires or cables. Additionally, the device itself can be disinfected, or used in a bag or medical glove per the manufacturer’s notes. This is handy in applications where disinfection or quarantine protocols are critical.

Function Modes:

The device has two functional modes:

• Earphone Mode- In this mode, you pair the Stemoscope Pro directly to a pair of wireless headphones, or ear pods. Providers can then listen to auscultation sounds from the device. Pairing of the device is accomplished by selecting earphone mode on the device and having a pair of Bluetooth headphones or earphones within range and in pairing mode of the device. Once this device is paired to earphones, you can use it for auscultation without a smartphone, however there is no control for changing the bell/diaphragm/wide filter on the device meaning that users will be limited to Heart Sounds when paired directly with earphones.
• Smartphone Mode- Using the “Dr. Stemo” app users can pair the Stemoscope Pro to an Apple or Android smartphone. Features in this mode include local listening through the phone including filter control and exam guidance, recording and sharing auscultation sounds through a premium (paid) cloud service, and live streaming function.

Operational Details:

While in Earphone mode, we found the device quite useful- once we were able to get it to pair (see the challenges section on pairing issues that we encountered). The Auscultation sounds from the device were generally good, however, in earphone mode, the device is limited to a single filter. To get traditional, Bell and Diaphragm filtering, the smartphone app is needed. This is a pretty significant limitation and for many clinical applications will force users to go through the smartphone app.

The Smartphone mode of the device packs in quite a few features for both local listening and streaming applications. The “Dr. Stemo” app has some rudimentary telehealth functions including video and audio, and auscultation sound streaming. It also features record and share features so users can save their recordings in a premium cloud service. Overall, the user guidance for exams appears to be quite good with the phone’s forward-facing camera acting as a mirror for the user, providing an outline on the screen to guide auscultation.

Challenges:

Most of the issues we experienced with this device fall into the usability category. For example, the physical selector switch on the device used to select between Earphone, Off, and Smartphone modes is challenging to use as the switch is easily bumped between modes and lacks strong tactile indicators when a mode is selected (there is no “click” when you move between modes). In use terms this means that it is very easy to bump the switch into a mode that you did not intend. This includes inadvertently leaving the device powered on, as only the middle switch selection allows for the power off function. A small bump of the selection switch can mean that the device battery is dead when you try to use it (we experienced this on multiple occasions). If the device is in a pocket or bag, this will likely occur frequently.

The pairing process for Earphone mode was very problematic. If you want to switch to a new earphone, you will need to make sure that the Stemoscope is physically out of range of the last paired earphone. In a wirelessly dense environment with many Bluetooth endpoints, it can be very easy to inadvertently pair the Stemoscope to an unintended endpoint, and then very challenging to repair it with a correct device. Smartphone mode eliminates most of these challenges.

The Dr. Stemo app, while impressive in its ambitions to capture auscultation, is limited to smartphones only and there does not appear to be a good method to connect the Stemoscope Pro to a computer without using some sort of external Bluetooth receiver to the computer (similar to car Bluetooth devices that use an AUX cord to connect to a car’s stereo). This means that getting recordings into an EHR or other application will likely be challenging. The app itself often crashed when trying to use the live video and stethoscope streaming function.

The Dr. Stemo app can function in two modes: Provider and User. If you need to switch between user and provider modes on a single smartphone device, you will need to remove the app from your device and change the setup profile under a new installation with a new email address. The user setup process, while quick, required only an email address and a password. This is unlikely to be a robust enough user validation process for most clinical applications and enables input errors of email addresses. Additionally, there is no way to manage these user accounts. If the wrong type (provider or user) is selected in the app setup process, that email address is forever locked to that account type.

Summary:

Overall, from a hardware perspective, this device is impressive as a wireless and good sounding digital stethoscope. However, the physical mode selection switch, limitations in earphone mode (lack of filter controls), usability issues in the “Dr. Stemo” app, and frequent pairing challenges make us feel fairly conflicted about this device. We deliberated doing a writeup for this device but determined that for users willing to put in the time to navigate its quirks this might be a helpful tool for telemedicine.

More information this device can be found from the manufacture’s webpage here: Stemoscope PRO manufacturer website