Lapsi Health launched the second generation of its digital smart stethoscope that integrates an AI medical scribe.
The health tech company’s Keikku 2.0 device integrates advanced AI capabilities and functions like an intelligent assistant for physicians across multiple specialties and modalities, according to the company.
“Keikku 2.0 is the first multimodal device to combine clinical, administrative and AI power in one tool,” Jhonatan Bringas Dimitriades, M.D., CEO and co-founder of Lapsi Health, told Fierce Healthcare, giving a first look at the second-generation technology.
Lapsi Health aims to combine clinical expertise with cutting-edge technology to reimagine the role of everyday medical tools such as the stethoscope. The company's smart stethoscope, a wireless, puck-shaped, touch-sensitive device, uses sensing technology and AI to listen to body sounds, along with ambient AI capabilities to document and diagnose in real-time, according to the company.
“That means less time on paperwork and more focus on patients. We’re proud to bring this innovation to market and give clinicians back hours each day to deliver better patient care,” Bringas Dimitriades said.
Last fall, the company’s smart stethoscope gained U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Class II clearance, setting the stage for its U.S. launch.
The company, which has offices in Amsterdam and Houston, designed its first Keikku device to upgrade the traditional stethoscope from an analog listening device to one that captures data, paving the way for advanced AI-driven analytics in multiple fields of care, including cardiac, respiratory, gastrointestinal and obstetric diagnostics.
The device’s name, Keikku, means “child” in Finnish, as many of Lapsi’s founders have ties to Finland, and the company initially designed the tool to monitor respiratory conditions in children, Bringas Dimitriades said.
“After we launched it, we realized that sound is not only inside, it's also outside, and we can do much more if we also enhance the capabilities of Keikku to make it an ambient acquisition device that has high-quality ambient sound capture,” Bringas Dimitriades said.
Keikku works like a traditional stethoscope, with amplification, noise cancellation and filtering to enhance the auscultation experience. If Lapsi Health's AI detects a murmur or a lung pathologic sound, the physician will receive a notification.
In ambient mode, Keikku 2.0 can transcribe conversations between clinicians and patients and automatically generates ready-to-use clinical notes that can be integrated into major electronic health record systems, according to the company. Clinicians can use the Keikku AI web-application to edit and approve the SOAP note (subjective, objective, assessment and plan notes) and other templates. ICD-10, CPT and other codes will be automatically deployed in the SOAP note, the company said.
The device also works with all major scribe technologies, including Lapsi’s Keikku AI and third-party platforms. This flexibility makes adoption simple for clinics and hospitals of any size, executives said.
Lapsi Health says medical data is always protected with advanced encryption and HIPAA-compliant security.
But the company aims to capture more than just the conversation between doctor and patient.
“We want the high-quality ambient sound capture to be able to not only get just words, but also, in the future, to be able to acquire all the characteristics of voice and language, to be able to give us more than just conversation capturing, but also most likely voice biomarkers,” Bringas Dimitriades said.
The smart stethoscope also helps diagnose. Its multiple sensors, combined with its proprietary AI engine, detect cardiac murmurs and lung sounds that may signal disease, providing insights during routine exams, executives said.
The small device is portable and can be used on the go during hospital rounds, from exam room to exam room in the clinic, or providing care out in the field in patients’ homes or on ambulance rides. Keikku is also Bluetooth-enabled and currently must be paired with a smartphone. Future technology is expected to enable the device to operate independently, according to the company.
"We have a roadmap for more sensors. We are already in R&D for our next-generation device that adds three more sensors. These are non-invasive medical sensors that will give more information on vital signs," Bringas Dimitriades said.
Lapsi Health was founded by Bringas Dimitriades and his wife, Diana van Stijn, M.D. Ph.D., a Dutch physician, Rodrigo Alvez, a technologist and Seamus Holohan, an Irish-Finnish entrepreneur.
The company also brought on board Toni Leinonen as head of engineering. He was the previous co-founder of Haltian, a company that played a big role in the development of the Oura ring. The company has raised $5.8 million to date, backed by Modi Ventures.
Keikku 2.0 is available today at a price point of $350 to $400 with options that add AI scribe and diagnostic capabilities. It’s sold directly to healthcare professionals.
There are medical clinics in the U.S. piloting the technology, as well as several hospitals in South America, Bringas Dimitriades said.
"At the moment, scribing technologies are being used in the consultation desk. What we're trying to do is expand the usage of these technologies outside of the consultation desk to use them in other moments where patient and doctor interactions are as important, like during rounds in pre-operative checkups or in the field in the emergency rooms," Bringas Dimitriades said.
Lapsi Health's device is democratizing access to advanced AI devices and technologies for physicians across medical settings, he noted.
Other medtech companies have been working in this space for the past decade. Eko Health was launched more than 10 years ago and developed a smart stethoscope that uses artificial intelligence to help healthcare professionals detect heart and lung disease. The company has raised a total of $165 million and notched an FDA clearance last year, which unlocked its AI program for capturing cases of low cardiac ejection fraction, a key indicator of developing heart failure.
Lapsi Health has broader ambitions to use its sensing hardware combined with its software and AI technology to make an infrastructure play, Bringas Dimitriades said.
“AI ambient space is booming and there's no infrastructure for it. Some hospitals are using laptops. Some hospitals are using iPads. Some people are using their own personal phones. Some people are thinking about clips. There's no real infrastructure,” he said. “We think this could be the biggest infrastructure play that could happen in healthcare this year.”
He continued, “We want Keikku to be an interface of artificial intelligence in healthcare, so not only our artificial intelligence, but any other company's artificial intelligence. We created an open gateway strategy in which we deliver an API gateway with our device so that we can interface with any scribe technology algorithm through Keikku.”
The company also aims to partner with other auscultation technology companies (auscultation refers to listening to the internal sounds of the body). There is one partnership in the works, but Bringas Dimitriades declined to name the company.
“If we build up a robust API strategy, we can bring companies that are agnostic, AI technology companies into the ecosystem of Keikku, converting it into the interface play that we want,” he noted.
Bringas Dimitriades likened Keikku to the iPhone, where functionalities like the phone and camera are not as critical to its success as the Apple iTunes Store, which allows users to connect with third-party apps.
“That’s how we saw the opportunity with Keikku in healthcare that we would partner up with companies that are not Keikku or Lapsi but can build up technologies that are compatible with our sensors,” he noted.
Physicians are seeing the value of the AI-enabled device integrated with an AI scribe.
“Just as Apple reimagined the phone, Keikku redefines listening to voice and the human body. It’s not just a tool, it’s a medical assistant,” said Shafi Ahmed, M.D., Ph.D., professor and general surgeon in London, England.
“As a general practitioner, Keikku has completely transformed the way I approach workflow and auscultation in my daily practice,” said Tamara Sunbul, M.D., a chief medical information officer in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.