A Proposal to Incorporate Digital Auscultation and Its Processing into an Existing Electronic Health Record

This paper aims to describe and discuss a proposal to incorporate digital auscultation and its processing into an existing EHR. The architecture was planned to be used in both primary and hospital care, and includes a digital stethoscope; an exam collection module; an integration module; an EHR web service; and an EHR. Special attention was given to standardize communications using HL7 and openEHR. The proposed implementation uses a commercial stethoscope, an android app to collect the data, a mirth integration engine that communicates using HL7 or openEHR through REST or SOAP calls. The signal processing of the sounds is also included. The auscultation sound files are made available to the EHR users. This solution will open the possibility to have richer patient records than can be very important for patient care, research and medical teaching. It also raises issues regarding ethical and legal concerns that must be considered in future research.

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