Eko's new $199 stethoscope works the old-fashioned way, until you twist it and AI starts listening for murmurs

Eko Health said on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026, that the FDA has cleared its CORE 300, a stethoscope that switches between traditional and digital listening with a twist of the chestpiece and connects to Eko's FDA-cleared AI for structural heart-murmur detection, and that it is on sale now in the U.S.

The stethoscope is the most-used diagnostic tool in medicine and it has barely changed in a century, mostly because doctors like it that way. Eko's earlier digital models asked clinicians to give up the analog feel; this one lets them keep it and twist into the digital mode when a sound is hard to hear. That, plus a price in Littmann territory, is the real pitch. The fine print is that the murmur-spotting AI lives behind a subscription, so “AI stethoscope for $199” is more like “very good stethoscope for $199, AI sold separately.” Still, putting a cleared murmur detector in the pocket of every nurse and rural clinician is the kind of boring, practical AI that might actually catch heart disease earlier.

Eko Health, a San Francisco company, said the FDA has cleared the CORE 300 and that the stethoscope is on sale. The clearance is a 510(k), the path the agency uses when it judges a device similar enough to one already allowed on the market. It is cleared for children and for adults. Those lines are Eko's.

Eko says the CORE 300 is the first stethoscope to put traditional listening and digital listening in one chestpiece. Traditional listening is the analog kind: sound travels up the tube, and the device needs no battery and no app. Twisting the chestpiece switches modes. Those lines are Eko's.

Digital mode amplifies sound up to 35 times, with a volume control and active noise cancellation, which turns down the room so the body sound is easier to hear. A clinician can pick Cardiac, for the heart, Pulmonary, for the lungs, or All-Purpose. A built-in display shows heart rate while they listen. They can record heart, lung, and body sounds, look at them, and save them. The display is shatter-resistant. The battery is described as multi-week. The product page says up to 120 hours of digital use, charged over USB-C. Those lines are Eko's.

Paired with the Eko App, the CORE 300 can run Eko's FDA-cleared software for structural heart murmurs. A murmur is an extra sound in the heartbeat. Structural, here, means the software is looking for the kind tied to how the heart is built. Eko says the finding aids the clinician. It is not a diagnosis. On the product page, those AI results require Eko+, a paid membership billed by the month or by the year. The announcements do not print that price. Spotting atrial fibrillation, an irregular heart rhythm, needs the pricier CORE 500, not this model. Eko states 92% sensitivity for its murmur detection. Sensitivity, here, is how often the software flags a murmur that is really there. Those lines are Eko's.

The price on Eko's site is $199, shown as marked down from $249. Eko says the CORE 300 is “priced in line with premium traditional stethoscopes.” It went on sale Oct. 22 at ekohealth.com in the United States. Canada, the United Kingdom, and select European markets come next. Eko says it has delivered more than 750,000 devices. Those lines are Eko's.

Connor Landgraf, chief executive and co-founder, said, “Our goal is to bring the most ubiquitous clinical exam into the precise digital era.” Jerome Adams, MD, the 20th U.S. Surgeon General, said clearer listening at the point of care “can be especially meaningful in rural and underserved communities, where the next level of care may be hours away.” Eko lists Adams as a paid medical advisor. Those quotations are theirs.

The picture is Eko's own product photo: the CORE 300 chestpiece held to a patient's chest, the round display reading a heart rate of 85.

In plain terms, Eko said on Thursday that the FDA cleared a $199 stethoscope that still works the old way, and that twists into a louder digital listen with a heart rate on the screen. The murmur software is cleared, and it is not part of the $199. It needs a paid Eko+ membership, at a price the company has not printed. AFib detection stays on the CORE 500. The device is on sale in the U.S. now.