Eko: Digital Stethoscopes

Review by eFreeware

Eko: Digital Stethoscopes is a free Android app from Eko Health, Inc., made to work alongside the company's compatible digital stethoscopes rather than on its own. The pitch is straightforward: connect a stethoscope, and the app turns a routine physical exam into a chance to catch heart and lung problems earlier. That is the reason a clinician would consider it.

I think the appeal is clearest for people who already carry Eko hardware and want the exam data captured, stored and shared rather than simply heard once and forgotten. The app has been on Google Play since February 2017 and sits at a 4.8 average from more than 5,300 ratings, with over 100,000 installs. Those numbers suggest a settled tool rather than an experiment, though they say nothing about how it fits your own workflow.

Built for clinicians with the right stethoscope

This is not a general-purpose health app for a patient at home. It is designed for a physical exam, and it depends on pairing with a compatible Eko stethoscope to do the work described.

The audience I would expect to get the most from it is primary care physicians, cardiologists, nurses and students who examine patients regularly and want a record of what they heard. The developer also lists medical education and patient engagement among its uses, which fits a teaching clinic or a consult where showing a patient their own heart sounds helps the conversation.

Because the app is built around capturing and organizing exam data, it rewards consistent use across visits rather than one-off curiosity. Patient profiles exist to flag changes in a condition over time, and that only becomes useful when the same patient is recorded more than once.

Murmur and arrhythmia flags

The headline capability is detection. The app flags structural murmurs in as little as five seconds, and the recent update says murmur results now arrive in five seconds, described as up to three times faster than before. It also flags atrial fibrillation, tachycardia and bradycardia.

Those flags are prompts for a clinician's attention, not diagnoses. The app is meant for information only, not as a substitute for a licensed healthcare provider's advice. I read that as the sensible framing: the app points at something worth a closer look, and the judgment stays with the person examining the patient.

ECG is one feature that stands apart, and it works with the CORE 500 digital stethoscope. The arrhythmia picture widens only if that specific device is in the room.

Guided exams and wireless listening

Beyond single-point listening, the app supports guided, multi-point exams that walk through a systematic assessment of heart and lung sounds. That structure is useful in a teaching setting, where the sequence matters as much as the result, and in busy clinics where a consistent routine reduces missed steps.

The app also auto-connects to the stethoscope and captures recordings while the phone stays tucked away, which is the detail I find most practical: the exam proceeds normally and the capture happens in the background.

Recordings can be played back, annotated and saved. That combination covers the two things a clinician usually wants afterward, which are hearing a sound again and noting what was heard at the time.

Keeping exams organized and shareable

Storage is where this kind of tool either earns a place in a clinic or becomes clutter. The app builds patient profiles and lets you sort exams by room, follow-up status, recording source or a custom label, keeping recordings stored securely for later reference. The recent update adds tags for custom labels and an encounters view that puts recordings and exams together in one place.

Sharing is handled in two ways: a PDF report, or a direct link to a recording that can go to trusted colleagues. The developer also lists uploading to compatible EHRs, which matters for practices that want the record to live with the rest of the patient's chart rather than in a separate app.

The feature set leans toward routine use, and routine use is where organization tools prove themselves.

What it costs and what the membership covers

The app itself is free to download and carries no ads. It does offer in-app purchases, and the developer notes that some features may require a paid Eko+ membership. Feature availability can also vary by country, so what is included where you practice is worth confirming before you build a routine around a particular capability.

I would treat the membership as part of the cost of the setup rather than an afterthought, because the stethoscope is already a purchase. Saving recordings is now part of standard Eko App access, which suggests the line between free and paid has moved at least once and may move again.

That depends on which of the flagged features you actually need, and the details of compatible devices and membership are on the Eko website.

How it compares with other routes

The trade is capability against simplicity, and for many routine exams the simple option is entirely adequate.

Eko's approach is to work inside the exam you are already doing rather than adding a separate appointment or procedure.

The reason to choose Eko is that the capture and the documentation come from the same place.

A practical addition for Eko-equipped practices

If you already use a compatible Eko stethoscope, the app is the part that turns it into a record-keeping and detection tool, and the free download with no ads makes trying it a low-stakes decision. The murmur and arrhythmia flags, the guided exams, the wireless listening and the organized storage all point at the same goal: fewer findings lost between visits.

The conditions are real, though. I would also keep the developer's own caution in view, that the app informs rather than replaces clinical judgment.

For a solo practitioner weighing whether to add recording to the exam room, the case is reasonable but not automatic. For a clinic that already owns Eko devices, or a teaching program that wants students to hear and review real sounds, the fit is much clearer, and the organization and sharing tools are likely to be the features that keep it in use.

What's new in version 6.0.1

What's new: * Redesigned interface – Cleaner, more intuitive design * Encounters – Recordings and exams in one view * Tags – Organize exams by custom label * Link sharing – Share recordings via link * Faster murmur detection – Results in 5 seconds, up to 3x faster * Save recordings – Now available with standard Eko App access