Thanks to our Silver Sponsor Ardas for this thought leadership article outlining best practices for startup development:

Ardas’ case on data-driven patient care:

AI-powered stethoscope system

AI has entered and drastically changed all areas of our life, and healthcare is not an exception. The telemedicine boom, wearable devices, smart IoT solutions, and data-driven solutions—these are just some of the key trends in healthtech in 2024. You may now be thinking: how to create a healthcare product that will fit the market well?

In this article, Ardas healthtech professionals will share the results of one of their impact projects—an AI-powered IoT stethoscope system for healthcare providers.

This piece follows Ardas' previous article on how AI is transforming the startup ecosystem.

How it Works: an AI-powered IoT Stethoscope System

In 2021, the team took on a challenge to create an AI-powered stethoscope system, benefitting both patients and healthcare specialists. Here is the story behind the project:

About IoT Device

A Smart Stethoscope is a portable medical device designed for auscultation. It allows healthcare providers to record, store, play, and analyze sounds from patient organs. It also features heart rate measurement capabilities. The device's functionality can be extended by connecting it to a mobile app and the cloud.

Packed with AI, the Smart IoT Stethoscope uses a neural network algorithm that processes a range of data to identify auscultation sounds. When the AI feature is enabled, the system displays the recognition result on the screen once the auscultation is completed. The result is also announced through the headset.

The device also seamlessly connects to mobile apps and the cloud, offering enhanced features. It uses WiFi as its communication channel, functioning as a WiFi access point.

Team’s Role

Ardas' role was to develop a comprehensive software solution and AI model and ensure their seamless integration with an IoT stethoscope device created by an external team. This included a mobile app for data synchronization and AI analysis, a web app for secure data management, and a real-time AI model for sound analysis. Ardas provided a cloud-based backend for secure data storage. Through close collaboration with the device team, Ardas delivered a secure solution to enhance diagnostic accuracy and uplift patient care for healthcare professionals.

This AI stethoscope system is set to become a comprehensive healthtech IoT solution that facilitates collaborative care.

The Goal of the Project

The client wanted to create an AI-powered stethoscope system that modernizes patient diagnostics. This IoT healthcare solution was meant to leverage AI to analyze heart and lung sounds to support early detection of potential diseases and enhance care.

Ardas’ Core Challenges

The team navigated a couple of critical challenges for the project to succeed:

• Regulatory compliance. The system was designed to comply with FDA Class II, HIPAA, and GDPR standards, ensuring the highest levels of regulatory adherence. Healthcare data interoperability is maintained through HL7 FHIR standards.
• Data security. Ardas offered to implement end-to-end encryption and secure data storage. However, the client chose a different approach—anonymizing patient data (instead of storing full names, we only store a patient ID, which the doctor separately records in their medical log).
• Performance. The project achieved fast response times and 99.9% uptime, with built-in scalability to support up to 10,000 concurrent users without performance degradation.
• Adaptability. Ardas ensured the solution was adaptable to a wide range of healthcare environments, including offline functionality for areas with limited or no connectivity.
• Noise filtering and model refinement. The project's AI model relies on diverse, high-quality data. A key challenge Ardas faced was that the device records constantly modified sounds (such as heartbeats overlaid with external noise). The team is training the system to filter out extraneous sounds and provide accurate diagnoses, even with a heterogeneous dataset. That’s why the machine learning model is constantly being refined to meet the target accuracy rate of over 85%.

The Team & Stack

Ardas’ journey with this project started in 2021, leading to product development in 2022, followed by a pause. Work resumed in 2024 to allow time for FDA certification. Plus, during this time, Ardas assembled a skilled hardware team with hands-on expertise.

The team consisted of backend, frontend, mobile, DevOps, UI/UX, QA, data scientists, business analysts, and project managers. They collaborated with external hardware experts to create an end-to-end IoT healthcare solution.

The technical stack included React Native, React.js, Node.js, TensorFlow, and PyTorch.

System’s Key Solutions

The AI-powered stethoscope system is equipped with all the modern features healthcare providers require. Let’s review them in brief:

• iOS and Android mobile apps:
  ○ Synchronizes sound data from the stethoscope device.
  ○ Provides access to AI-driven analysis results directly on mobile.
  ○ Supports offline functionality with synchronization once reconnected.
  ○ Conducts sound labeling and data management.
• Web app for data management:
  ○ Designed for healthcare administrators and clinicians.
  ○ Offers a secure, user-friendly interface for reviewing and monitoring patient data.
  ○ Supports detailed, in-depth analysis for ongoing patient care.
• AI model for real-time sound analysis:
  ○ Works in tandem with the device to classify and analyze heart and lung sounds in real-time.
  ○ Ensures healthcare professionals receive precise, actionable insights quickly.
• Cloud-based backend services:
  ○ Manages secure data storage and synchronization between mobile and web applications.
  ○ Ensures system scalability and performance, supporting up to 10,000 concurrent users.
  ○ Provides real-time data access and robust uptime for reliable healthcare delivery.
• Effective cross-team collaboration:
  ○ The software and device teams have maintained close coordination, enabling seamless integration between hardware and software.
  ○ This cooperative development approach has resulted in a highly reliable, secure IoT healthcare solution designed to aid healthcare professionals in accurate patient diagnosis and monitoring.

A Partner to Count on: Healthcare Challenges Ardas Solves

Ardas has been developing top-notch healthtech solutions for over 19 years. Team’s products are set to help medical professionals better care for their patients. Here are some of the major challenges Ardas helps handle:

• Reduced paperwork. Ardas creates custom healthcare solutions for clinics and hospitals that streamline administrative tasks, allowing staff to focus on delivering high-quality, personalized care.
• Healthcare compliance management. The team offers expert support with regulatory compliance, including HIPAA and local requirements, to ensure healthcare systems remain safe and effective.
• Inefficient patient management. Ardas develops tailored solutions that address the specific needs and challenges of your healthcare business.
• Improved patient service. Team’s solutions optimize and personalize service delivery, enabling faster and more efficient care.

Conclusion

Ardas’ case shows that AI will only keep enhancing the development of modern healthtech solutions. Use this article as a tutorial for creating your next AI-powered tech product. With the right approach, dedicated team, and a big idea, we’re sure you’ll come out on top. Good luck!

About Ardas

Ardas is a full-cycle software development company that provides tailor-made IT solutions to businesses and startups worldwide. Since 2005, we’ve empowered clients across industries like logistics, healthcare, fintech, and beyond with innovative services, including product development, legacy system modernization, cloud computing, and data analytics. A key focus today? Strategic AI adoption. We help modern businesses harness the power of AI to transform operations, optimize processes, and unlock new growth opportunities.

With a team of 200+ experts, we build scalable, secure, high-performance, pre-built, or custom software solutions . Our flexible engagement models—whether dedicated teams or outsourcing—guarantee efficient project delivery.

Ready to integrate AI into your business? Let’s talk: schedule a consultation with Ardas experts today https://ardas-it.com/contact-us

For more information, visit https://ardas-it.com/healthcare

Thanks for this article and its graphics to to OC Startup Council Silver Sponsor Ardas.

Want to share your advice for startup entrepreneurs?  Submit a Guest Post here.

Thanks to our Silver Sponsor Ardas for this thought leadership article outlining best practices for startup development:

How AI is Revolutionizing the Startup Ecosystem

Part 1: Creating Real Value Beyond the Hype

With the startup ecosystem more competitive than ever and skyrocketing customer expectations, using AI has become a mere necessity, not just an option. From  automating daily tasks and hyper-personalization to driving critical business decisions, startups in the U.S. and beyond are tapping into AI’s potential to scale rapidly and outpace competition.

But too many entrepreneurs remain hesitant or even skeptical about this breakthrough tech. Some have made first attempts following the hype and face  bottlenecks now. To help navigate the AI-related themes, Ardas AI experts have prepared a cluster of articles. The first article discusses AI's real value for startups, adoption challenges, ways to overcome them, and how one should prepare for the AI-powered future.

3 Solid Benefits of AI for Startups Proven Growth

Hype aside, let’s discuss some real benefits of AI for scaling startups. What makes AI an essential component for growing startups quickly and efficiently and attracting needed investment? Below are the top three reasons to consider artificial intelligence boost if you are still in doubt.

1) Leading Role in Streamlining Operations

Fact: AI significantly simplifies various operational challenges that startups face, allowing teams to focus on high-impact tasks.

For example:

• When it comes to automating repetitive tasks such as data entry, customer inquiries, or project tracking, AI-powered solutions notably reduce time and labor costs.
• Tools powered by AI, like project management systems, enhance productivity by
  optimizing workflows and reducing bottlenecks.

This makes AI an essential component for scaling startups quickly and efficiently.

2) Boosting Customer Experiences with AI

Fact: Personalization has already become a crucial factor in customer retention. AI allows startups to offer hyper-personalized experiences through recommendation engines, product suggestions, or AI-driven customer support.

For example:

• Chatbots provide 24/7 customer support, answering common queries and resolving real-time issues.
• Recommendation systems improve product suggestions and cross-selling options.

This improves customer satisfaction and loyalty while freeing up human resources for more complex tasks.

3) AI-Driven Data Insights

Fact: Data is one of the most valuable assets for startups, SMEs, and even enterprises. But harnessing its full potential without AI can be costly and daunting.

AI-driven analytics empower startups to:

• predict customer behavior,
• track performance metrics,
• and forecast future trends with high accuracy.

Predictive analytics can identify patterns that humans might miss, giving startup leaders an edge in making strategic decisions that are both data-driven and actionable.

Challenges in AI Adoption and Ways Out

Despite AI’s potential and the benefits it offers, startups may face significant challenges when adopting AI. For early-stage startups, the high cost of AI implementation can be prohibitive, especially when integrating AI with existing systems that are often not designed to handle advanced technologies. The technical difficulties involved can also be daunting, requiring expertise that many startups lack.

Additionally, the growing demand for skilled AI professionals creates a talent shortage, making it difficult for startups to find and retain the right people. Plus, even when AI systems are implemented, the data quality available for training machine learning models can be a challenge. Startups often struggle with having insufficient or poor-quality data, which hampers AI performance and its ability to deliver meaningful insights.

Ways to Proceed:

1. Start small. Invest gradually: Start with smaller AI apps, modules, and features that offer immediate, measurable benefits. This minimizes initial costs and allows the company to scale AI usage as it becomes more feasible.

2. Use AI-as-a-Service (AIaaS) platforms: Instead of building everything from scratch, startups can utilize cloud-based AI platforms with ready-made APIs. It will help reduce infrastructure costs and provide access to sophisticated AI tools without needing in-house expertise.

3. Focus on data quality: Before implementing AI, invest time in gathering and cleaning high-quality data. Consider using data augmentation tools to enrich your datasets, improving the efficiency and accuracy of AI models.

4. Build a Hybrid team: While AI experts may be in high demand, startups can either develop a hybrid team where current employees work closely with external consultants or contractors or outsource the entire AI module to an experienced team, saving cost time for hiring/training. This helps bridge the skills gap while transferring AI knowledge to in-house teams. By addressing these challenges strategically, startups can integrate AI more effectively, ensuring a smoother transition and setting themselves up for long-term success.

Steps for Successful AI Implementation from the Ardas Team

When introducing AI into your company's operations or board, you should carefully consider the process to ensure that the integration is smooth and beneficial. Below are the key steps Ardas AI team usually advises its customers.

Step	Description
Make objectives as simple and clear as possible	Identify what you want to achieve with AI. Start small with something realistic and measurable, like improving customer response time by 10%
Assess your business readiness for AI	Critically observe your infrastructure and workforce capabilities
Start with a pilot, POC, or MVP	Always test AI solutions on a small scale before a full rollout
Collect and analyze data	Data is your main and most valuable asset, when it comes to AI. Use insights to improve AI integration
Scale and optimize	Expand AI use based on successful pilot, POC, or MVP outcomes
Continuously monitor & retrain AI	Ensure AI systems remain effective and up-to-date with the latest datasets

Preparing for the AI Future

Whether you accept it or not, a successful startup's future is inevitably linked to AI. To stay ahead, startups must invest in relevant data collection, build agile teams, and continually explore new AI applications. With AI’s potential to scale businesses and drive innovation, startups that embrace AI today will be well-positioned to dominate their industries in the years to come.

The faster your business uses its stunning range of resources, the more time, creative energy, and capacity it'll have. Your competitors have already tried or plan to adopt AI in one way or another. To ensure you are not missing out on crucial tech  opportunities for your business, consider product discovery or AI consulting with a trusted vendor, like Ardas, to analyze and unlock your business potential in full.

The coming articles in this cluster will cover more industry-specific insights on what AI solutions fuel fintech, logistics, martech, and healthcare, how to start, and what are the real-world examples.

About Ardas

Ardas is a full-cycle software development company that provides tailor-made IT solutions to businesses and startups worldwide. Since 2005, we’ve empowered clients across industries like logistics, healthcare, fintech, and beyond with innovative services, including product development, legacy system modernization, cloud computing, and data analytics. A key focus today? Strategic AI adoption. We help modern businesses harness the power of AI to transform operations, optimize processes, and unlock new growth opportunities.

With a team of 200+ experts, we build scalable, secure, high-performance, pre-built, or custom software solutions. Our flexible engagement models—whether dedicated teams or outsourcing—guarantee efficient project delivery.

Ready to integrate AI into your business? Let’s talk: schedule a consultation with Ardas experts today https://ardas-it.com/contact-us

For more information, visit https://ardas-it.com/ai-development-services

Thanks for this article excerpt and its graphics to to OC Startup Council Silver Sponsor Ardas.

Want to share your advice for startup entrepreneurs?  Submit a Guest Post here.