Chennai: Diagnosis is set to become more accurate now with the launch of ViScope 100, an innovative auscultation device that enables doctors to "see" heart beats.

HD Medical Group Ltd officially launched the device here on Tuesday.

Arvind Thiagarajan, chief inventor of ViScope, told reporters that with this device, doctors could see the heart beat.

The display device shows graphically the heart beat in the form of waves similar to a ECG graph.

According to Thiagarajan, the visual device could be plugged to a computer and a print-out could also be taken. A doctor could also zoom in on to a particular spot for a careful study.

K.Thirumurthi, a nuclear medicine physician at Madras Medical Mission, who has tested the equipment, told IANS: "Seeing the sound makes a lot of difference in arriving at a conclusion. It takes a long time for a doctor to actually master the art of hearing the heart."

"The general practitioners may miss to read/hear correctly the heart sound which may turn out to be costly for the patient." With a devise like ViScope, things were smooth, he added.

According to him, ViScope, which has an improved technology in comparison to stethoscope, could replace the traditional device.

However, the high price of the device, at Rs.30,000, poses challenges to the marketing plans of HD Medical.

"The price has to be brought down at least by half so that general practitioners can also buy the instrument," Thirumurthi said.

HD Medical has tied up with BPL Ltd to market the product nationwide.

"We are targeting to sell around 50,000 units by the end of 2009 and earn around $10 million. We will be looking at the primary health centres and the various telemedicine projects," HD Medical chief operating officer and vice-president Vijay Simha said. IANS