People today expect to be examined when they enter a doctor's office. At least they expect their blood pressure and temperature to be measured. However, as recently as two hundred years ago, a doctor's treatment depended on talking with patients. In general, the communication between doctors and their patients was the most important part of medical methods. The modem age of medicine began with the stethoscope, an instrument for listening to patients' heartbeat and breathing. Before that, a doctor did not touch a patient. In fact, there was no such thing as a medical examination. The stethoscope-with all other medical instruments-has a serious effect on the practice of medicine. Doctors become better at finding the medical problems. More lives are saved. At the same time, doctors give less importance to the communication between patients and doctors. Some doctors actually stop talking to their patients. It is easy to understand why some sick people thought themselves as broken machines. A stethoscope can be used to______.