Dr Laennec's importance to modern medicine was guaranteed by his invention of the very first stethoscope in 1816. Here are five things you (probably) didn't know about him : 1.

In a monthly column for PBS NewsHour, Dr. Howard Markel revisits moments that changed the course of modern medicine, like the invention of the stethoscope. Photo By BSIP/UIG via Getty Images. Long ...

Lore has it that 35-year-old Paris physician Rene Laennec was caring for a young woman who was apparently plump, with a bad heart and large breasts. ... and that became the first stethoscope.

On the 236th birth anniversary of French physician René Laennec, considered the inventor of the stethoscope with a special doodle commemorating him on René Laennec stumbled upon the design of ...

To hear a patient’s heart, doctors used to just put an ear up to a patient’s chest and listen. Then, in 1816, things changed. Lore has it that 35-year-old Paris physician Rene Laennec was ...

Pinkerton JHM. Kergaradec, friend of Laennec and pioneer of fetal auscultation. Proc R Sec Med. 1969;62:477-483. Roguin A. Rene Theophile Hyacinthe Laennec (1781-1826): The man behind the stethoscope.

Modern-day stethoscopes bear little resemblance to the first stethoscope, invented in the early 1800s by Frenchman Rene Laennec, but they work essentially the same way.

Lore has it that 35-year-old Paris physician Rene Laennec was caring for a young woman who was apparently plump, with a bad heart and large breasts. ... and that became the first stethoscope.

Modern-day stethoscopes bear little resemblance to the first stethoscope, invented in the early 1800s by Frenchman Rene Laennec, but they work essentially the same way.

Lore has it that 35-year-old Paris physician Rene Laennec was caring for a young ... he went home and crafted a wooden cylinder with a hole down the middle and that became the first stethoscope.

CHICAGO — Two centuries after its invention, the stethoscope — the very symbol of the medical profession — is facing an uncertain prognosis. It is threatened by hand-held devices that are ...