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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

A Google Images search for “doctor” reveals essentially the same picture: a doctor wearing a crisply ironed white coat with a stethoscope draped, scarf-like, around the neck. The only difference ...

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 ...

Doctors have been listening to the sounds our bodies make for years. Before the invention of stethoscopes, they simply put their ears to their patients' chests or abdomens. The technical term for this ...

Parents may soon be able to avoid hauling their screaming sick kids to the doctor. They can just scream at home. An increasing number of health care tasks can be done at home because basic medical ...