I am an emergency physician who wears RIC hearing aids and this year bought the Thinklabs One stethoscope. I previously had the Thinklabs DS32 stethoscope because I found it to be the best electronic one. The Thinklabs One is markedly better and is without a doubt the best stethoscope I have ever used. It is basically an enlarged stethoscope diaphragm about 1.5 " in diameter and slightly over an inch high, to which you attach either supplied ear buds or headphones which you have to purchase separately. With hearing aids, I needed the headphones and use the BOSE OE2. According to the manufacturer The One is up to 100 times louder than an acoustic stethoscope, which I believe is probably true. The headphones and stethoscope easily fit into a lab coat pocket. I typically wear one tulip dome and one open dome so I can use the phone and I needed the open dome with a normal electronic stethoscope, but I can hear the heart and breath sounds with this scope very well through the tulip dome. There are 10 volume settings and I have never not been able to hear heart or breath sounds on a patient. In fact using this scope, I hear things like murmurs that my younger, normal hearing colleagues can’t. There are settings for lower and higher frequency sounds which you can change with the push of a button as you go from heart to lungs. In the past I almost always had to mute my hearing aids when I listened to a patient to block out extraneous noise, with this one I only occasionally have to do that. It is rechargeable and has never run out of power during a 12 hour shift (even 14 hours) and I am sure it would run longer if I needed it to(the manufacturer states 250 minutes of listening time). I have never tested how long the charge actually lasts because I usually bring it home and charge it up after each shift. The negatives are it is expensive, around $500 for the scope and I had to pay about $80 for the headphones. You have to be careful with it, I had to send it back once because I screwed the faceplate on wrong and messed up the threads, and recently one of the buttons stopped working. The company is excellent and really honors its warranty. As it is a new design it remains to be seen how sturdy these are and what the actual life span of the scope will be. I actually have purchased two of them with one as a backup because I would not want to work without this scope anymore.
If you are hearing impaired and having trouble hearing with your current scope, and have the money, I would suggest you consider this scope as you look around for other options.
I have also been using the new ThinkLab with the ear buds. It works well with my my RIC aids, but I did have to cut off the ear locks from the aids. Expensive but worth it when you’re trying to hear a heart murmur in a baby.
Thanks for the review. I ended up buying a Littman because the old ThinkLab scope just kept breaking down. Sent for repair twice and just gave out on me completely. The housing was very flimsy and plasticy. It was very frustrating. I did get the email about this new model but am pretty happy with my current setup. No muting needed.
2014 audiogram pretty much unchanged.
I am a new HA wearer, 3-4 weeks into Phonak Brio R312Ts. Right away it was apparent my stethoscope tips were physically blocked by the RICs, and I could not hear well. I bought the Thinklabs One stethoscope and am pleased. I use over-the-ear headphones with it and hear heart and lung sounds well. I dropped it just now, but I think it survived the fall.
On another note, can someone suggest an adjustment or program for my HAs that might stop reverberating, whistle-like sounds that follow each note when I play the piano?
Thank you.
Thank you for the review, as this was suggested to me as an alternative to my bulky e-scope/princess leia headphone combo I am currently using. I was worried about the comfort level of having both the RIC as well as the earbuds in my ear at the same time.
Every electronic stethoscope I’ve tried previously has hurt like crazy from pushing on the RIC whenever I put them in my ears, even when using soft tips instead of the hard ones. Someone suggested combining an electronic amplified steth with the stethomate tips to avoid excessive pressure on the receiver, but I haven’t been able to find them locally and didn’t want to waste the 50 bucks after shipping on something that may not work. Has anyone tried this? (and if so how did it feel?)
Nobody has described their domes and this might be an important factor. If you can use open fit, I’d think your success with buds would be far better. At the other end of the domes are double domes and that should obstruct the sound from buds.
My domes are just the regular open fit 8mm Starkey domes, but my audi would be more than willing to give me any kind of domes I need to make the buds work so long as it doesn’t mess things up when I don’t have the buds in. (hope that made sense, lol)
I am an intensive care medical officer new to hearing aids and using my Littmans Cardiology stethoscope with open fit RIC aids. I have good hearing in the low frequencies but find that I need to mute my aids to use the stethescope. Mostly this works well but I have to make sure the stethescope does not alter the angle on the wires/tubes/receivers because that can obstruct the sound. The Littmans cardiology does put some pressure on the wires also so I am not sure if that will alter the time they last and can be uncomfortable at times. I have wondered about getting a thinklabs one but their website says that headphones are required for use with open fit RIC aids and I really don’t want to carry around headphones - not enough pockets for all the phones and beeper as it is. How well do the ear buds work with open fit RIC aids and how reliable is the thinklabs one? I live in Australia so turnaround time for repairs could prove problematic.
I use Phonak open domes on my Starkey aids and the ThinkLabs ear buds fit very comfortably. See my post in the related thread in the Bluetooth forum.
I’m so happy to have read this forum!! I was considering getting the escope. Even after a few hours of online researching I didn’t come across this stethoscope! It sounds fantastic! Does anyone know if there is a way to connect them to the HA directly via Bluetooth? I have the resound Linx2 9 RICs. Currently I have an open fit so ear buds or headphones would work but I think I may need to switch to closed/moulds. If I had to I’m not sure that this would work anymore? Any suggestions!
I’m not sure if it matters but I have mild-mod low frequency loss.
Thanks!!
Hi,
Work has just purchased me the Thinklabs One Stethoscope along with the Oticon Edumic to aid me listening to patients in my job as a Veterinary Nurse and they work amazingly well. It allows me to be able to listen to the heart and able to wear both hearing aids at the same time allowing me to hear the surgeon better. Definitely recommend!
Also purchased a telephone connector set so I can set this up with the work phones and connect this directly to my Edumic to enable me to take calls. I have both the ConnectClip and the Edumic, I would say the Edumic is much better built and much more useful than the ConnectClip.
My 30 year old Littmann Cardiology II stethescope finally bit the dust when the diaphragm rim broke and Littmann/3M no longer supply spare parts for it. So I took the plunge and bought a Thinklabs One. I purchased direct from the USA as it was hugely cheaper that way. There was only one supplier in Australia and the price was double. Due to Covid, I quarantined it for a week on arrival. I have been using this for a couple of months now and love it. Sound is great on the lowest setting and it allows me to put a little more distance between the patients exhalations and myself, which is preferred in the current circumstances. I am using the ear buds that came with it and leaving my hearing aids in. The only disadvantages are the risk of battery running out when needed and the inability to hang it over my shoulder to carry it with me everywhere at work. Battery life has been impressive but I have also bought a new acoustic stethescope as a backup and for emergencies. There is a period of adjustment as the amplification can be very inclusive and you need to keep it to a minimum and learn to pick out the sounds you are listening for. It is also very easy to clean with alcohol wipes.
Do you find the aids provide enough low frequency sound compared to simply using some small headphones? I use Bose over the ear headphones currently with the thinklabs one.
Hi. After a period of time using it with a variety of patients, I found it was more difficult to pick up the heartbeat compared to the Littmann stethoscope. Especially deep chested patients. So I decided to return to using a Littmann Classic III stethoscope instead and so take one hearing aid out when I’m using it.