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I think one of the nice things about the stethoscope is that you really can't use this tool without
getting quite close to the patient, and there's something quite intimate about putting this
on yourself, and then putting it on the patient's body.
It was invented first in 1816 by René Laennec, and it was a much simpler instrument at that time
It was really essentially just a hollow tube that he put his ear to, and put the other
end onto the patient's chest or abdomen and listened to the sound that way.
And it was actually the first piece of equipment that was a way of finding out what was going
on inside the body without actually having to cut open, or do something internally.
It was way before X-rays.
And it was only after the invention of the stethoscope, with the carrying of the stethoscope
in the pocket that the physician signaled that he or she was someone committed to trying
to make an anatomical or a clinical diagnosis.
While I still think of my stethoscope primarily as a diagnostic tool, I also realize that
it is more than that, that it is a symbol.
And that my use of the stethoscope is very symbolic both to me and to my patient
in the building of that relationship, and that trust.
There are more and more technologies that augment the information that can be gained
by a stethoscope and that can give more information to less-skilled examiners.
The technology that people talk about the most, that is going to supplant the stethoscope,
is point of care ultrasound, or some people refer to it as a bedside ultrasound.
There are many, I think, young doctors who would say that the ultrasound machine, a little
portable machine that they can have with them at the bedside, can do an equal job to the stethoscope.
The information that you can get from a pocket ultrasound is really much more than what the
stethoscope offers.
I don't rely as heavily on the stethoscope now as I used to because we do have more technology that is pretty
readily available, and that can give an awful lot more information.
That being said, in my practice, I still find my stethoscope extremely valuable every day.
In most places in the world where they can't afford portable ultrasound machines, a
stethoscope is still a extremely valuable and relatively inexpensive piece of equipment.
Maybe at some point, we'll completely eliminate the need for a stethoscope.
But I think the current technology, as good as it is, and as portable as it is, isn't
as portable and as easy to use as a stethoscope is.
As everything else falls aside, this winds up becoming one of the few times when people
actually do something that involves touching the patient.
A few years ago, there was a study that was done.
They had a bunch of actors, and they had them dress up.
One group wore a stethoscope.
The other wore a reflex hammer.
The other a little pen light.
And then they showed these pictures to a group of, to a, to an audience, and asked them to
rate the individual, just on their appearance about how trustworthy they were.
And the stethoscope was by far the most trust-inducing piece of medical equipment.
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Is the stethoscope going away any time soon?
I don't think so.
It is too valuable a piece of equipment.
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