Why an mp3 player may soon be in your doctor's office

The stethoscope in your doctor's office may be on the way out, and an mp3 player may be on the way in. No, doctor's aren't jamming to tunes while assessing patients, but instead are using the gadgets to better hear breath sounds and everything else they used to listen to with a stethoscope. By pressing a microphone to the chest doctors and nurses get much better sound quality, and can even record and replay what they hear and store the sounds on computers for others to reference later.

Stethoscopes have been around for over 200 years, and although there will always be some uses for them I say there's no shame in retirement!