The Remote on the stethoscope: How a Vancouver Island internist 3D printed his way to better rounds
Maureen Green
Field Marketing, Canada•August 14, 2026•10 min read••
Dr. Michael Jansz x Heidi Remote at a glance
"My stethoscope is the one thing I always have with me, so I made a little thing to clip it to my stethoscope and I just wear it with me all day." — Dr. Michael Jansz, General Internal Medicine & ICU, Cowichan Valley, BC
Key outcomes:
10 to 15 minutes back per patient, up to two to three hours returned every rounding day
A 3D printed mount that clips Heidi Remote to his stethoscope, worn over the gown so isolation precautions are no barrier
A repeatable five-step rounding system, from EHR prep to notes pasted back into PowerChart
Discharge summaries for long, complex hospital stays generated from linked daily progress notes
Two years of compounding gains in the office, with most notes now needing minimal editing
An AI scribe that works in your office but is locked out of your hospital
No computers or microphones at the bedside, and a computer-on-wheels that can't keep up with a roaming clinician
A phone that rings mid-visit and drains its battery before rounds are done
Action items from bedside conversations and nursing report living on scribbled paper lists
Meet Dr. Michael Jansz
Whether he is working in the ICU or out on the wards, doing rounds or seeing a new consult, or assessing patients on isolation precautions, there is one thing Dr. Michael Jansz always carries with him: his stethoscope. So when he wanted his AI scribe with him everywhere too, the answer was obvious. He fired up Fusion 360, designed a mount, 3D printed a prototype and attached his Heidi Remote to his stethoscope.
"My stethoscope is the one thing I always have with me, so I made a little thing to clip it to my stethoscope and I just wear it with me all day." — Dr. Michael Jansz, General Internal Medicine & ICU, Cowichan Valley, BC
The payoff is easy to measure. On documentation alone, Remote saves Michael 10 to 15 minutes per patient, up to two to three hours per day, while standardizing his notes, tracking his tasks and keeping him present at the bedside.
A physician with an engineer's brain
Michael practices community general internal medicine and ICU in the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island, where he has worked for eight years. His time is split roughly in half: inpatient work covering call and MRP rounding for a combined GIM/ICU service on one side, and a full-scope outpatient general internal medicine practice on the other.
Medicine was almost his second career before his first one started. Both his parents are physicians, but Michael was more interested in engineering, studying combined math and physics, then completing a master's in medical physics working on MRI sequence development at SickKids Hospital in Toronto before choosing the clinic over the lab.
"I was always much more of a math, physics, engineering kind of person" — Dr. Michael Jansz, General Internal Medicine & ICU, Cowichan Valley, BC
Internal medicine, with its puzzles and problem solving, turned out to scratch the same itch.
The 3D printer arrived in January, a Christmas present to himself. Apart from a token articulating dragon and the occasional fidget for his kids, he mostly prints functional parts: a helmet mount for his bike light, replacement pieces for the broken mechanism in his blinds, a stencil for painting his deck railings and a case for his e-reader, to name a few. When his Heidi Remote arrived at the end of May, he pulled out his callipers, created a 3D model, and designed and printed a mount to attach it to his stethoscope.
The design also solves a real clinical problem.
"Many of the patients I see are on isolation precautions requiring gown, gloves, and mask, and the Remote can't hear when it sits under a gown. If I clipped it to the gown itself or wore it overtop on a lanyard, then it increases the risk of transmission of infection and it is also likely to end up in the laundry." — Dr. Michael Jansz, General Internal Medicine & ICU, Cowichan Valley, BC
His stethoscope is worn on top of the gown because he needs it to examine the patient anyway. Now Remote rides along.
Two years in the office, locked out of the hospital
Michael has used Heidi in his outpatient office since August 2024, after his father, a urologist in Ontario, sent him a referral code. He now uses Heidi during almost all of his office encounters.
"…with continuous improvement in Heidi's accuracy and refinement of my templates, most of my notes now require minimal editing." — Dr. Michael Jansz, General Internal Medicine & ICU, Cowichan Valley, BC
But the inpatient setting was a different story. Health authority regulations prohibiting the use of recording devices and unapproved technology within the hospital meant that Heidi could not be used for inpatient consults and daily rounds. He participated in a formal health authority-run pilot of a scribe from a major tech vendor, but found it lacking: less customizable, less accurate and frustratingly slow to evolve and improve.
"With Heidi, I regularly contact support to suggest new features or report bugs. Features get added. Bugs get fixed." — Dr. Michael Jansz, General Internal Medicine & ICU, Cowichan Valley, BC
When the health authority began approving and subsidizing scribes, the policy problem was solved but the practical one remained: in hospital there are no computers or microphones at the bedside. While some colleagues have made it work with computers-on-wheels, that is simply not practical for someone who roams the hospital and frequently sees patients on infection precautions. He tried transcribing on his phone but encountered frequent interruptions from incoming calls, the same infection concerns and major issues with CPU use and battery life.
Then an email arrived offering early access to Heidi Remote. He was one of the first to order.
Rounds, rebuilt
For inpatient rounding, Michael calls Remote "a game changer." His mornings now run on a repeatable system:
Create a session for each patient on the day's list, prepped with recent data exported from the EHR using macros and pasted into the session context
Complete morning report with the ICU nurses and then the bedside visit with the patient and family as usual, with Remote clipped to his stethoscope
Enter orders for patient care, exporting a screenshot of the list to attach to the context just prior to signing
Provide Heidi with a defined list of issues on which the note is to be based
Generate notes, review and paste back into PowerChart
Linking historical sessions carries issues and data forward, tracking both active and historical problems. When the time comes to transfer care to another physician or discharge the patient home, that running record pays off. Heidi retains historical information, keeps things organized by issue and ensures the plan is clearly documented.
"If I have been using Heidi to generate my daily progress notes, it also does an exceptional job summarizing even long and complex hospital stays, making discharge summaries pretty quick and seamless." — Dr. Michael Jansz, General Internal Medicine & ICU, Cowichan Valley, BC
The results
About 15 minutes back per patient. With Remote enabling Heidi for inpatient care, Michael estimates he saves 10 to 15 minutes per patient. Rounding on a dozen patients, that's two to three hours returned every single rounding day, time that previously went to typing at a workstation after the fact.
Two years of compounding gains in the office. Since August 2024, his outpatient notes have improved to the point where most of his notes now require minimal editing, approaching usable almost unaltered.
More consistent notes.
“A big part of the value is standardizing the documentation," — Dr. Michael Jansz, General Internal Medicine & ICU, Cowichan Valley, BC
He's working on recruiting colleagues as well.
Presence at the bedside. Heidi picks up the action items from bedside conversations and nursing report that used to live on scribbled paper lists.
"I don't need to do that anymore, and I can be more present during these interactions as a result." — Dr. Michael Jansz, General Internal Medicine & ICU, Cowichan Valley, BC
As an early adopter, Michael is candid that Remote is still maturing, with session management and syncing between platforms not yet functioning quite the way one might hope. It hasn't dented his enthusiasm.
"I have complete confidence that Heidi will sort that out, though." — Dr. Michael Jansz, General Internal Medicine & ICU, Cowichan Valley, BC
Two years of watching his feedback turn into real features will do that.
"For inpatient rounding, it's been a game changer." — Dr. Michael Jansz, General Internal Medicine & ICU, Cowichan Valley, BC
