Let's do a simple test association test.  I'm going to write down a word.  After you read it, close your eyes and think of the images that come to mind.

 The word is:

 DOCTOR

(close eyes now)

Welcome back.  Now it's likely that the images that crossed your mind included the following:

White Coat

Stethoscope

Those two objects are probably the most famous symbols of the medical profession. 

But a slow, steadily growing body of evidence suggests that the sleeves of doctor’s coats (especially the pockets and sleeves) and the head of their stethoscopes are reservoirs for bacteria. Our hands touch you, we place our stethoscope on your chest to listen.  Like magnets, bacteria attach to our hands, sleeves and instruments. That bacteria that then can be spread between patients, leading to infections that we doctors are then solely responsible for. 

While doctors are now very diligent about washing our hands between encounters, not so with dry cleaning our coats or cleaning off our stethoscopes with, say, an alcohol swab. 

Mostly, we're trekking a common bacteria called staph aureus around  with us.  Most of have some of this on our skin but in a hospital or medical setting, where we have people who are often ill with diseases that compromise their immune system (AIDS or cancer for example), even a common bacteria can lead to serious problems.  Also, more cases of what's called methicillin resistant staph aureus (MRSA) are starting to emerge.  This is a particularly tough strain of bug that many antibiotics can't treat, making it that much more dangerous. 

Last year in the U.K., the National Health Service recently banned white coats altogether   (of course, that might mean we're just carrying the bugs on our own shirtsleeves out of the hospital to home and elsewhere, rather than just leaving them there). And while we can't do the same with stethoscopes, I'm certain that all of us in the medical profession will be hearing more and more about washing our hands and our doctor toys).

And let's not forget the non-doctor personnel who wear white coats iand use stethoscopes in the medicial profession these days--they include nurses, respiratory therapists, lab workers, pharmacists and just about anybody who comes into contact with a patient. 

The big irony here, for those of you who are history buffs:  The white coat itself was initally adopted by doctors as a symbol of both their scientific know how and their dedication to sterile techniques. 

 But, like so many other things in medicine, times really have changed.