A new study in the journal PLOS ONE entitled "A quasi-experimental study on stethoscopes contamination with multidrug-resistant bacteria: Its role as a vehicle of transmission" found low levels of stethoscope hygiene education and practice among clinicians and no significant reduction in levels of stethoscope contamination, including nosocomial pathogens and multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria, despite educational intervention (consisting of flyers and 2 separate one-hour slide presentations). In this study involving 98 clinicians in a university-affiliated teaching hospital in Seoul, South Korea, self-reported stethoscope cleaning with alcohol swabs/gel or soap and water, increased after educational interventions for "every patient" from 10% to 20% and from 21% to 34% for "at least once per week," while those reporting cleaning "on occasion" fell from 51% to 40.8% and "not at all" from 18% to 4.1%. Despite the overall self-reported increase in hygiene practices, contamination rates of stethoscope diaphragms were not significantly reduced after the educational intervention as compared to baseline (97.9% vs. 91.5%,