Michael Splinter:

Yet when I walk into my doctor’s office, it is a time warp — not back 25 years but more like 200 years…[The stethoscope] is a truly archaic device and yet we trust our lives and health to it in a way that is out of touch with the world we live in today. The stethoscope has no ability to record information; it has no ability to analyze information. Its successful usage depends totally on the practitioner at the moment. I wonder how much harm and delay the stethoscope causes these days in missed diagnosis or inaccurate conclusions.

An excellent question and all around great post, especially regarding paper medical records.