<p>My son is in a P.A. program and needs to buy these items. He is getting prices from his university, but I thought I’d check out some other sources, as these will be fairly expensive items.</p>
<p>D1 bought an inexpensive stethoscope for EMT-I class and scrubs from a mail order site. (I can’t remember which one, but if you google there are several.) Amazon also sells stethoscopes and the prices look pretty good.</p>
<p>D said that which brand/model of stethoscope is very much a personal preference and that she tried using several of her instructors’ and classmates’ before picking one to buy. (She is small with small, delicate ears so some of the stethoscopes with bigger earpieces were uncomfortable.)</p>
<p>Stethoscopes run anywhere from $10 to several hundred.</p>
<p>DD was given her stethoscope at school, but had to buy a diagnostic kit and the school had a discount through steeles dot com.
She checked ebay and amazon for several weeks and the used equipment went for a pretty high price so she used Steeles as it is warranted throughout her 4 years of med school</p>
<p>amazon.com for the oto/optho, 100 bucks for a combo. Maybe a nicer stethoscope, like a Litmann.</p>
<p>The prices on amazon are pretty good ($148 for a Littman cardiology III). </p>
<p>I didn’t even buy an opto or ophthalmoscope since most of the exam rooms already have one. Bought a Playstation 3 instead.</p>
<p>The new patented panoptic ophthalmoscopes from Welch Allyn are amazing. They really do make the fundoscopic exam much easier. But, they’re like $500-1000 each.</p>
<p>I bought mine at my medical school’s bookstore and recall they were very expensive. I suppose I could have checked prices at the other medical schools in Philadelphia; Penn, Jefferson and Temple to see if they had lower prices than MCP Hahnemann, now Drexel School of Medicine, but I suspect the bookstores at the different medical schools in Philadelphia have an informal agreement that they will all charge the same prices for books and supplies.</p>
<p>My parents bought me an expensive Littman Cardiology stethoscope when I was a medical student. Aside from being more expensive, the Littman proved to be little different from less well respected scopes. </p>
<p>After 15 years in practice, I bought myself a Heine Gamma 20 stethoscope. Wow! I could hear so much detail it was scary. Retail price is around $220, but better pricing is available online. The Heine Gamma 20 for $220 is a better value than the Littman Cardiology III for $150. A scope with a tuneable diaphragm (e.g., Littman Master Cardiology or Heine Gamma 20) permits filtering for high and low pitched sounds by altering pressure on the head without repositioning.
[Heine</a> GAMMA 20 Stethoscope](<a href=“http://www.mystethoscope.com/heine-gamma-stethoscope-p-148.html]Heine”>http://www.mystethoscope.com/heine-gamma-stethoscope-p-148.html)</p>
<p>Probably more important than a great stethoscope is a library of iPod or mp3 recordings of normal and abnormal heart sounds.
[Updating</a> the Stethoscope with an iPod - TIME](<a href=“http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1150017,00.html]Updating”>http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1150017,00.html)</p>
<p>An expensive diagnostic set (otoscope/ophthalmoscope) is not necessary - virtually all clinics and offices provide relevant equipment. If your student really wants a diagnostic set, buy a used one on ebay. Most medical students sell their diagnostic sets sometime during internship when cash is tight.</p>
<p>D’s received their stethoscopes as a gift from alumni. She bought her very nice “as new” Welch-Allyn whatever-scope on ebay. It was $600 new at her school “equipment fair” and she paid half that. It was NOT the new GT turbo deluxe , although she has used one and says it is awesome. She said something about the newest, latest, greatest not being what she would use on some practical, test, exam, board, qualifier so she said she thought it was best to buy the other.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the info. I never thought a stethoscope could be so exciting!</p>
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<p>Which is okay if you’re an experienced clinician and know what to do.</p>
<p>A two-headed stethoscope is practically required by my school since during the clinical exams, they must be able to assess that you know when and where to use the diaphragm and when to use the bell. This isn’t possible with the stethoscopes you suggested above.</p>
<p>I got my son a 3M Littman on Amazon.</p>
<p>BTW…if you use a student email account, Amazon Prime will give you free expedited shipping for a year. :)</p>
<p>For those that have the master cardio, do you have any problems with it? Never had to get one until now, since all the exam rooms had scopes in them. My school doesn’t care if we get a tunable one or not. So I’m deciding between the master cardio or cardio III.</p>
<p>Dont get the master cardio (or any of the ‘master’ line) unless you really like the “tunable diaphragm” concept. I’m personally not a huge fan, and your school is going to want you to at least learn how to use both a diaphragm and bell.</p>
<p>Buy online, and don’t get temped by the big fancy cardiology scopes - as a student, you won’t be able to tell the difference.</p>
<p>I would also pass on buying anything other than a stethoscope and reflex hammer (which is all of $3, even at my school’s bookstore). Oto/fundoscope sets are pretty much useless except for outside practice because every exam room has a set. (And they’re expensive)</p>
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<p>Pretty much agreed. Don’t buy an otoscope/ophthalmoscope. I have heard multiple attendings say that the only time they use theirs is when they need to look in their own child’s ears. </p>
<p>Other than the stethoscope and reflex hammer mentioned above, I get a lot of use out of my penlight (cost like $5) as a poor man’s ophthalmoscope to check pupillary reflexes. Your med school might want you to buy a tuning fork as well. They’re cheap, and I bought one, but I haven’t really used it except for physical exam training purposes. Other than when I was on my neurology clerkship, I definitely don’t carry it around with me.</p>
<p>I’ll throw my vote with the rest of the pack. A decent stethoscope is about all you need as a student. If you are particularly interested in Peds and might be doing more than the required clerkship (2 or 3 4th year rotations), then a model that allows changing the head to a Ped size would be useful.</p>
<p>Reflex hammers are cheap enough to be disposable. Tuning forks I doubt I;ve ever used in the 30years since I bought mine other than as a lark at home (still have them) or some talks I’ve given to school kids/Scouts/etc for show and tell.</p>
<p>Unless required or you just got to have a set, pass on the Otoscope and Ophthalmoscope – expensive and a pain to carry around for as little as you need them unless you are planning on doing some off-road way out in the boonies onsite/housecall type training. I’ve bought 3 or 4 over the years and the batteries regularly go bad faster than I get any real use out of them even for home use.</p>
<p>OTOH – I do get a chuckle every time I read the thread title about oscilloscopes.</p>
<p>Yes, someone is making a lot of money selling students things they don’t need. Oh here they are…it says Steele Medical Student Supply Co. at the bottom of the supply list handed out by the university. The 3M Littmann Cardiology III Stethoscope is only $136.99. Thanks for saving me a lot of money!</p>