Mini-Abhörgerät für einen guten Zweck

The challenge: The Department of Exposure Research and Epidemiology at the UFZ Centre for Environmental Research Leipzig-Halle investigates environmental effects on human health. One important aspects is the impact of airborne pollutants on the airway which is sometimes reflected in allergic diseases of the respiratory organs, such as asthma or bronchitis. Previously, no portable instruments were available for the long-term-monitoring of corresponding risk person which could detect symptoms without the active assistance of the person involved. This was a gap in the market which needed to be filled - not only for studies into evironmental epidemiology and environmental medicine, but also for diagnosis in industrial and general medicine, especially for children. A difficult birth: Work began with the idea of augmenting the familiar doctor's stethoscope with an equally small instrument in which the pathological noises of the respiratory organs are detected by a micro-computer instead of the doctor's ears. This enables a person to be 'auscultated' outside the doctor's surgery or hospital - in other words, the patient is being 'bugged'. This approach is essential as it has long been known that breathing problems caused by environmental effects often occur when the doctor is not present, such as during the night, shortly before waking up, or when the patient is out and about. Nevertheless, the birth of this relatively simple idea back in 1993 was followed by a thorny process of development before a prototype ready for production and distribution could be presented.