Zargis Medical, a majority-owned subsidiary of Speedus Corporation, has entered into an agreement with Boston-based Stethographics. The agreement provides an exclusive license to patented, FDA-cleared Stethographics lung sounds analysis technology that automatically identifies clinically significant respiratory sounds.
The license agreement allows Zargis to expand into respiratory sounds market. Zargis plans to incorporate the technology into its existing telemedicine and computer-aided auscultation platform to deliver these new diagnostic support tools to medical professionals.
Zargis said that the licensed technology allows lung sounds to be visually displayed in the form of traces, similar to the manner in which the Zargis Cardioscan heart murmur detection software displays stethoscope-captured heart sounds. The system also provides objective findings regarding clinically significant respiratory sounds such as wheezes, crackles and rhonchi.
Although certain respiratory sounds are often associated with a variety of illnesses and injuries, such as asthma, pneumonia, COPD, interstitial pulmonary fibrosis, bronchitis and pneumothorax, the task of identifying, differentiating and recalling such sounds can be challenging for medical professionals. The early and correct recognition of important lung sounds can have a significant impact on health outcomes and improve patient management.
John Kallassy, CEO of Zargis, said: “Numerous investigations have been published which support the role of computer-aided lung sounds analysis. With our existing heart sounds analysis device, cleared for sale in 37 countries, Zargis is already the world’s leading provider of computer-aided auscultation tools. The integration of lung sounds analysis tools into our award-winning software and telemedicine system is a natural progression in our development.”