ThinkLabs One Stethoscope with Hearing Aids

I am a bilateral hearing aid user with an asymmetric, flat-ish hearing loss. My right ear has moderate-to moderately-severe mixed loss and my left has a mild-to-moderate sensorineural loss. My current hearing aids are Oticon OPN-S1 RICs. For context, I use a bass dome with the left aid, and the right has a hard mold.

I’m a community NP who is currently finishing a clinical placement in pediatrics in order to update my license to work with that population. I finally caved last year and bought the ThinkLabs One stethoscope and am LOVING it!!! It sure beats removing my hearing aids every time I want to listen to a patient’s heart and lung sounds. However, I’m finding the set up to be a bit cumbersome.

I’m currently using wired headphones connected to the stethoscope, which has been working well. However, since I’ve begun working with kids again - most of whom are under age 5 - the lengthy cord between the scope and my headphones has become a real hazard for me and (potentially) for them!! I’m wondering what my other options are to go as wireless as possible? I understand from reading the ThinkLabs website that I can’t stream the scope to my hearing aids using Oticon’s Connect Clip as the intermediary device because apparently Oticon doesn’t use true bluetooth, which makes streaming to my HAs impossible.

My incredible IT husband has ordered a wireless bluetooth transmitter receiver jack adapter which he says can be attached the to ThinkLabs One scope. The hope is that we can transmit the sound from the scope with the attached adapter directly to wireless bluetooth headphones. This would potentially rid me of the long wire while eliminating the potential choking hazard for both myself and my patients :wink: Has anyone tried this, and if so, can you actually verify that it works? I’m hesitant to purchase quality wireless noise canceling over-the-ear headphones for a solution that isn’t guaranteed to work.

On the upside, this stethoscope has proven to be amazing for use with vulnerable populations! The vast majority of my adult and pediatric clients have experienced significant trauma and tend to be very leery of new healthcare providers. The ability to allow my pediatric patients to hear their own or their parents’ heart/lung sounds has helped tremendously to bridge that gap. I’m finding even the adults are enjoying hearing their own lungs, especially those with chronic lung conditions. Plus, the lights on the One scope are an incredible distraction when seeing infants! There’s also the added advantage that tech geeks like my husband think my scope is pretty cool.

Anyway, I’m curious to know how other One users make this product work best. I appreciate any advice you have to offer!

I have some phonak aids, Roger select, wired over ear bose headphones, and a Thinklabs one stethoscope.

Still trying to get my Roger to transmit from the Thinklabs one, but others have.
By putting the sound through your Bluetooth to your aids you overcome your asymmetric hearing loss.
Otherwise, just some wired over the ear headphones are cheap and work fine. I got a shorter audio cable and used Bose headphones, both,on eBay.

Let me know about your Bluetooth setup if it works!

I finally got my bluetooth adapter in the mail! So far, it hasn’t been a great experience. There seems to be a delay in what I’m hearing in the headphones. For example, I can watch my daughter inhaling, but the sound of her inhalation comes through the bluetooth to the headphones about 2 seconds later. That’s “fine” in a non-emergency situation, but likely not ok in an actual emergency, which I do encounter at times in both clinics where I will be working. My husband, who is quite technologically-inclined, is going to see if he can tweak things a bit.

dghundt, I really need to figure out a way to go wireless, as the number of infants/toddlers tugging on the wire to my headphones is becoming problematic. Additionally, I will be spending one day a week in a somewhat remote clinic in a community that sees a significant amount of violence. Having wires anywhere near my neck is not a great option as it significantly increases my risk of strangulation from a patient or family member.