Novosibirsk State Technical University (NSTU) has proposed a concept for improving a simulator for auscultation (listening) of breathing in children. The developed solution will improve the auscultation skills of medical students and make the diagnosis of diseases much more effective in practice.
Auscultation is a diagnostic method for detecting respiratory diseases. It requires the doctor to be able to differentiate between types of breathing and side respiratory noises in the lungs. Such skills help to form auscultation simulators that allow you to repeatedly practice listening to the sounds of the heart and lungs normally and with various pathologies (noises, wheezing). The simulators prepare for real—world situations in a safe environment - without risk to patients, as practical skills are tested on a dummy.
According to Anton Gerasimov, senior lecturer at the Department of Data Collection and Processing Systems at NSTU-NETI, the project analyzed existing solutions in the field of medical auscultation simulators. The key problem is that the auscultation of children has fundamental differences from the auscultation of adults. This led to the idea of creating a children's simulator that takes into account the high cost of making a mistake when choosing a listening location.
The improved version of the simulator offers the use of RFID technology, which is based on the use of radio waves for data transmission. Such systems are classified as wireless and usually consist of three main components: a tag, a reader, and a data processing system. The hardware implementation of the simulator will include passive RFID tags, a reader antenna integrated into a phonendoscope simulator, a microcontroller for signal processing, and an audio output. The simulator will be equipped with a mechanical unit that simulates the respiratory excursion of the chest (the difference between chest measurements during inhalation and exhalation). The mechanical unit will also include an imitation of a heartbeat.
The main advantage of the proposed system is the ability to place an arbitrary number of reference points on the surface of the dummy. As the developer notes, most of the simulators are template-based, they give you the opportunity to listen in certain places. Increasing the number of auscultation points will complicate the diagnostic task, but it will enable the future specialist to correctly identify the points on the chest where lung sounds are better heard, and the correspondence of the noises at these points to the standard ones. This will allow you to better master the skill of auscultation for subsequent rapid and accurate assessment of the patient's condition and effective diagnosis of diseases.
"Technically, we implement this as follows: a certain number of RFID tags will be placed on a mannequin, and a sensor is hidden inside the phonendoscope to recognize such tags. If the student puts the listening instrument in the wrong place, the sound will be distorted. We are currently solving this problem using mathematical modeling," Anton Gerasimov said.
It is planned to create a prototype and conduct tests to assess its effectiveness by the spring of 2027. The improved version of the auscultation simulator can be used in two variations: for academic practice and for the exam.