An external, hand-held, electronic listening device designed to be used by a healthcare professional for real-time detection and amplification of body sounds (e.g., heart, blood vessels, lungs) that may be difficult to perceive when using a mechanical stethoscope; it is not designed for electrocardiography (ECG). It is typically designed to be connected to a computing device, which may operate interpretive software sometimes provided with the stethoscope, for recording and/or displaying the results in the form of a graph [phonocardiogram (PCG)].