Like many of his peers, Lowell, MA, physician Richard Ma has repeatedly plunked the listening end of his stethoscope into a latex glove before examining a patient with a suspected communicable disease at Saints Medical Center. But Ma has invented something called the Stethguard, which slides up the scope's neckpiece. The necktie-shaped plastic sheath serves as a barrier and may offer ammunition in the fight to reduce hospital-acquired infection, Ma says.
