Two centuries after its invention, the stethoscope — the very symbol of the medical profession — is facing an uncertain prognosis. It is threatened by hand-held devices that are also pressed against ...

A new study suggests stethoscopes need to be cleaned more diligently. The stethoscope has long been an iconic symbol of health care used for listening to the heart, intestines, lungs and blood flow.

The stethoscope is one of the most important and perhaps the most recognizable of all tools used by health care professionals. But new research finds they are often crawling with bacteria, including ...

To hear a patient’s heart, doctors used to just put an ear up to a patient’s chest and listen. Then, in 1816, things changed. Lore has it that 35-year-old Paris physician Rene Laennec was caring for a ...

(THE CONVERSATION) When someone opens the door and enters a hospital room, wearing a stethoscope is a telltale sign that they’re a clinician. This medical device has been around for over 200 years and ...

Objective: To determine whether the “cool” or circumcervical placement of the stethoscope when not in use is as efficacious as the traditional placement in terms of transfer time to the functional ...