The invention provides a stethoscope device comprising a chest piece, an amplifier and a mixer compatible with a conventional voice quality telephone system. Electrical signals are generated that are representative of physiological sounds such as breath sounds, heart sounds and bowel sounds. The electrical signals can be combined with voice communications at the remote site and transmitted over the telephone system. The invention also provides a system and method for diagnosis by a trained health care professional with the patient being located at a remote site. In another embodiment, the invention also provides a system and method for training students to interpret stethoscope sounds. In addition, the system allows for simultaneous listening by the health care professional and another individual at the remote location of the stethoscope.