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Stethoscope Tips for Better Sound Quality - Knowledgebase / Telemedicine Equipment - VSee Helpdesk

Stethoscope Tips for Better Sound Quality

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Tips when using ThinkLabs One Stethoscope with VSee:

1. We recommend connecting it via a USB audio device such as Turtle Beach Amigo II, or similar high quality USB audio input. While the computer's build in audio input or headset can work well, the quality of audio varies between computers. 

2. Set the stethoscope volume at about 2 out of 10.

3. Set the Filter setting for heart sounds to the second Bell setting i.e. - 0 0 - - - where - is an off LED and 0 is an On LED on the Hz display. See the filter setting instructions here.

The reason for not using the lowest Bell setting is that it provides VERY low bass, which is not really needed for videoconferencing and produces very large peaks in the signal which can overload the audio levels on the computer. Useful for a cardiologist with a patient, but not needed for telemedicine.

4. Connect the stethoscope to the audio input (mic) on the USB audio device.

5. Launch VSee Messenger.

6. On the patient side, go to Audio settings and select the Turtle Beach (or other USB) as your audio source when listening to stethoscope, and built in mic when talking. The doctor side (remote from patient) does not need settings changed.

7. Select stethoscope mode in VSee Messenger. See https://help.vsee.com/kb/articles/stethoscope-with-vsee-messenger.

This will adjust the transmission of sound to maintain the audio quality of the stethoscope sound. If you do not enable, the stethoscope sounds will be distorted by VSee. However, when doing speech communication from patient side, you may want to switch back to disable if audio from patient side is not clear.

8. If you find that the sound is not clear, especially if there is noise during each heart beat, it is probably due to volume too loud somewhere in the system. You may need to also adjust both volume on the stethoscope and input sensitivity levels on the USB audio device in your Windows or Mac system audio settings or control panel. 

Note that if the doctor wants more volume, he/she can turn up the volume on the computer at the doctor side, even if it has been reduced at the patient end to prevent noise/distortion.


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