The stethoscope may be the iconic medical tool that most doctors cannot do without, to diagnose and cure their patients' illnesses. Unfortunately, it may also be a cesspool of germs that could spread ...

In recent years, it's become painfully clear to everyone working in medicine that frequent hand washing is crucial to stopping the spread of infection in hospital settings. Nowadays, every hospital ...

DETROIT (WWJ) - They're a symbol of healing, but a new study finds one of the tools doctors use can be a magnet for bacteria. The diaphragm of a stethoscope — the round piece placed against a ...

Though doctors may disinfect their hands to prevent spreading illness, there may be another bacteria-ridden object they have on them that doesn't get the same cleaning treatment: their stethoscopes. A ...

A new study suggests your doctor's stethoscope may make you sick. The study was published in the medical journal Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology. Researchers examined 40 stethoscopes in ...

Stethoscopes tend to be more contaminated than the palms of physicians' hands, new research shows. In a recent Swiss study, researchers discovered that more bacteria cover a stethoscope's diaphragm ...

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 ...

Dirty stethoscopes may be helping to spread dangerous bugs around GP surgeries and hospital wards, a study suggests. One of the instruments was found to be more contaminated with bacteria than the ...

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 Palestinian-Canadian doctor has created a low-cost stethoscope using a 3-D printer, the first in a series of inventions he hopes will help alleviate medical supply shortages caused by an eight-year ...