An iPhone application developed by Peter Bentley is proving to be a hit among millions of doctors as a monitoring tool, replacing the traditional Stethoscope.

Designed just for fun by Peter for the University College, London the free version of the iStethoscope application took off last week with an astonishing 500 downloads per day.

When pressed against the chest, the iStethoscope pro monitors the patient's heart beats and provides an accurate audio and spectrogram image. In addition, patient's living far away from their doctor can also adopt this app, emailing the results for further diagnosis.

"Everybody is very excited about the potential of the adoption of mobile phone technology into the medical workplace, and rightly so," said Bentley.

"Smartphones are incredibly powerful devices packed full of sensors, cameras, high-quality microphones with amazing displays," he said.

Doctors are in favour of the iStethoscope finding it more easier to collect and share data. However, cardiologists warn that the app shouldn't be the only tool used to monitor heart rates.

Going by Peter's vision of the future, one day smartphones will be able to monitor blood pressure and conduct ultrasounds.

Learn more about this application and its developer on Apple iTunes App Store and The Undercover Scientist site.

Image Source: Apple