Product · in development
Murmur Trainer
A thirty-lesion parametric heart-sound engine. The murmur is computed from a model of the circulation, so changing the physiology changes what you hear.
What it is
Auscultation is taught badly almost everywhere, and the reason is structural. A student is played a recording of aortic stenosis, told it is aortic stenosis, and moves on. They have learned one sound. They have not learned what makes it that sound, and they cannot tell you how it would differ if the valve area halved.
Murmur Trainer exists to close that gap. Every sound it produces is generated at the moment of listening from a parametric model of the lesion and the circulation around it.
How it works
Thirty lesions, calibrated against published data. Each is a parameter set governing timing, intensity, frequency content and the shape of the envelope, tuned against the published acoustic and haemodynamic literature rather than assembled by ear.
The parameters are yours to move. Severity, heart rate, and the classical bedside manoeuvres all change the output in the direction the physiology dictates. A murmur that should get louder on squatting does, and it does so because the model says it must.
The stethoscope is part of the model. Bell and diaphragm filter what reaches the ear differently, and the application reproduces that difference rather than ignoring it.
Animated haemodynamics. Pressure curves and valve motion are shown alongside the sound, so the learner can connect an audible event to the mechanical one that produced it.
A prosthetic valve module. Mechanical and bioprosthetic valves sound unlike native ones, and unlike each other. They are covered explicitly.
Coverage
- Lesions
- 30, including regurgitant and stenotic disease of all four valves
- Prosthetic valves
- Mechanical and bioprosthetic, as a dedicated module
- Manoeuvres
- The standard bedside set, each with its modelled effect
- Assessment
- Adaptive testing with per-lesion mastery tracking
- Audio
- Synthesised at listening time; no recordings are used
- Platforms
- iOS and Android. Headphones strongly recommended
Status
In development. The engine and its clinical audit are complete; independent cardiology review of the lesion set is outstanding and the application will not be released before it concludes.
Murmur Trainer is a teaching tool. It is not a medical device, it is not for diagnosis or the treatment of patients, and it must never be used to guide the care of a real person.