Advocating an Elevation in Stethoscope Hygiene:The Clinician's Third Hand, the Stethoscope, is contaminated with the same pathogens as the hands and is capable of transmitting pathogens from patient to patient. Clinicians cannot afford to spend up to a minute between each patient cleaning their stethoscopes (the time cited in literature for maximum efficacy). Single-patient stethoscopes offer very poor sound quality. Touch-free, aseptic barriers for stethoscope diaphragms offer a 100% effective barrier in blocking any pathogens found on the stethoscope diaphragm, and have been demonstrated in literature to be workflow compatible, easy to use, and acoustically invisible.