Lub-dub. Lub-dub. That’s the sound a healthy heart makes. It’s a sound Suman Mulumudi is quite familiar with. Suman designed a new kind of stethoscope, an instrument that listens to heartbeats. This inventor is just 15 years old.
Suman’s parents are both doctors. Sometimes they discuss tough cases with their son. “In the environment I’m growing up in, I hear a lot about their work,” says Suman.
However, the teen did more than listen. He asked questions and started working on solutions to the problems he heard about.
First on Suman’s list was a smartphone stethoscope. Suman thought old-style stethoscopes needed improvement. He believed smartphone technology could modernize this common medical device.
Enter the Steth IO. It allows anyone both to see and hear heart and lung sounds—with their phones. Doctors can diagnose heart murmurs. Users can record and send data to a doctor.
The Steth IO uses technology already inside a smartphone. A simple plastic cover clips onto the phone. On the cover is a black ring surrounding a disc. The disc goes onto the user’s chest. A “sound tunnel” delivers heart sounds to the smartphone’s built-in microphone. The smartphone screen shows an image of the sounds.
Suman’s other invention is called a LesionSizer. Once again, Suman’s attention to the problems he heard his parents talk about led to his invention.
Doctors had no way to measure the size of unhealthy areas in blood vessels. They had to guess how large each area, or lesion, was. Suman knew a device to measure lesions would help both doctors and patients. LesionSizer allows a doctor to measure damaged blood vessels to do repair work precisely.
Suman founded a medical research company called StratoScientific.
Suman is another example of a gifted youth who isn’t waiting until he’s grown to use his talents.
