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Persistent Value of the Stethoscope in the Age of COVID-19

The stethoscope has long been at the center of patient care, as well as a symbol of the physician–patient relationship. While advancements in other diagnostic modalities have allowed for more efficient and accurate diagnosis, the stethoscope has evolved in parallel to address the needs of the modern...

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Autores principales: Vasudevan, Rajiv S., Horiuchi, Yu, Torriani, Francesca J., Cotter, Bruno, Maisel, Sofie M., Dadwal, Sanjeet S., Gaynes, Robert, Maisel, Alan S.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Elsevier Inc. 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7303610/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32569591
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.amjmed.2020.05.018
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author Vasudevan, Rajiv S.
Horiuchi, Yu
Torriani, Francesca J.
Cotter, Bruno
Maisel, Sofie M.
Dadwal, Sanjeet S.
Gaynes, Robert
Maisel, Alan S.
author_facet Vasudevan, Rajiv S.
Horiuchi, Yu
Torriani, Francesca J.
Cotter, Bruno
Maisel, Sofie M.
Dadwal, Sanjeet S.
Gaynes, Robert
Maisel, Alan S.
author_sort Vasudevan, Rajiv S.
collection PubMed
description The stethoscope has long been at the center of patient care, as well as a symbol of the physician–patient relationship. While advancements in other diagnostic modalities have allowed for more efficient and accurate diagnosis, the stethoscope has evolved in parallel to address the needs of the modern era of medicine. These advancements include sound visualization, ambient noise reduction/cancellation, Bluetooth (Bluetooth SIG Inc, Kirkland, Wash) transmission, and computer algorithm diagnostic support. However, despite these advancements, the ever-changing climate of infection prevention, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, has led many to question the stethoscope as a vector for infectious diseases. Stethoscopes have been reported to harbor bacteria with contamination levels comparable with a physician's hand. Although disinfection is recommended, stethoscope hygiene compliance remains low. In addition, disinfectants may not be completely effective in eliminating microorganisms. Despite these risks, the growing technological integration with the stethoscope continues to make it a highly valuable tool. Rather than casting our valuable tool and symbol of medicine aside, we must create and implement an effective method of stethoscope hygiene to keep patients safe.
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spelling pubmed-73036102020-06-19 Persistent Value of the Stethoscope in the Age of COVID-19 Vasudevan, Rajiv S. Horiuchi, Yu Torriani, Francesca J. Cotter, Bruno Maisel, Sofie M. Dadwal, Sanjeet S. Gaynes, Robert Maisel, Alan S. Am J Med Review The stethoscope has long been at the center of patient care, as well as a symbol of the physician–patient relationship. While advancements in other diagnostic modalities have allowed for more efficient and accurate diagnosis, the stethoscope has evolved in parallel to address the needs of the modern era of medicine. These advancements include sound visualization, ambient noise reduction/cancellation, Bluetooth (Bluetooth SIG Inc, Kirkland, Wash) transmission, and computer algorithm diagnostic support. However, despite these advancements, the ever-changing climate of infection prevention, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, has led many to question the stethoscope as a vector for infectious diseases. Stethoscopes have been reported to harbor bacteria with contamination levels comparable with a physician's hand. Although disinfection is recommended, stethoscope hygiene compliance remains low. In addition, disinfectants may not be completely effective in eliminating microorganisms. Despite these risks, the growing technological integration with the stethoscope continues to make it a highly valuable tool. Rather than casting our valuable tool and symbol of medicine aside, we must create and implement an effective method of stethoscope hygiene to keep patients safe. Elsevier Inc. 2020-10 2020-06-19 /pmc/articles/PMC7303610/ /pubmed/32569591 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.amjmed.2020.05.018 Text en © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active.
spellingShingle Review
Vasudevan, Rajiv S.
Horiuchi, Yu
Torriani, Francesca J.
Cotter, Bruno
Maisel, Sofie M.
Dadwal, Sanjeet S.
Gaynes, Robert
Maisel, Alan S.
Persistent Value of the Stethoscope in the Age of COVID-19
title Persistent Value of the Stethoscope in the Age of COVID-19
title_full Persistent Value of the Stethoscope in the Age of COVID-19
title_fullStr Persistent Value of the Stethoscope in the Age of COVID-19
title_full_unstemmed Persistent Value of the Stethoscope in the Age of COVID-19
title_short Persistent Value of the Stethoscope in the Age of COVID-19
title_sort persistent value of the stethoscope in the age of covid-19
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7303610/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32569591
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.amjmed.2020.05.018
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