During a physical exam, doctors pick up a lot from their patients, including that patient's bacteria. To keep infections from spreading, physicians try to always wash their hands between exams. But they don't always scrub their stethoscopes. To see just how much bacteria these instruments gather, doctors examined 71 patients using stereo stethoscopes and gloves. After each exam, researchers collected samples from the stethoscope surface and tube, as well as four parts of the positioned gloved hands-the fingertips, backs and two locations on the palm. The fingertips became by far the most bacterially contaminated. But the runner-up was the stethoscope surface, which gathered more microbes than the palm or the backs of the hands. The study is in Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Although fingertips picked up more than 5 times as much bacteria stethoscope did, doctors reduce that contamination before seeing the next patient by cleaning their hands. According to the study's authors, stethoscope should get the same treatment. Then, the only thing to fear is the stethoscope's icy temperature.