Automated heartsound analysis/computer-aided auscultation: a cardiologist's perspective and suggestions for future development.

Heart disease is a major cause of worldwide morbidity and mortality. Properly performed, the cardiac auscultatory examination (listening to the heart with a stethoscope) is an inexpensive, widely available tool in the detection and management of heart disease. Unfortunately, accurate interpretation of heartsounds by primary care providers is fraught with error, leading to missed diagnosis of disease and/or excessive costs associated with evaluation of normal variants. Therefore, automated heartsound analysis, also known as computer aided auscultation (CAA), has the potential to become a cost-effective screening and diagnostic tool in the primary care setting. A cardiologist's suggestions for CAA system design and algorithmic development are provided.