CHICAGO (AP) — 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 ...

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 ...

The image of a doctor with a stethoscope hanging around the neck may seem iconic, but in fact, this image may not last much longer, as hand-held ultrasound devices are predicted to replace ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. The basic premise of the stethoscope has been around for centuries, largely unchanged. Jonathan Kitchen/DigitalVision via Getty ...

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 ...

While stethoscopes can transmit the same germs as unclean hands, none of the doctors in a recent study bothered to clean them between patients. And that was the case even after an educational ...

University of Pennsylvania researchers examined 40 stethoscopes used in one ICU and found they were all contaminated with numerous bacteria, including the one that causes staph infections. And the way ...

The ability of physicians to recognize abnormal heart sounds is only fair at best. Fortunately, the solution is simple: Listening repeatedly. In fact, intensive repetition -- listening at least 400 ...