By UTMB’s Dr. Victor Sierpina: The stethoscope is maybe one of the most iconic items in medicine and health care. A patient of mine reported she was firing her cardiologist because he never even examined her, not once laying the stethoscope to her chest. I knew the cardiologist had run several sophisticated tests on this lady. It was unlikely he was going to find out much more by a simple auscultation of her heart. Yet, when it came down to it, she expected it and was upset and even angry that his bedside manner did not include this examination. In her case, high tech could not substitute for high touch. This may be a chance for us to re-examine the importance of communication, contact, and compassion in the clinical encounter. A best-care model would have the high touch aspects of a caring visit be present both before and after the ordering and reporting results of high tech diagnostics. Optimal care requires both high tech and high touch, and sometimes the old-fashioned symbols of healing.