<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>To determine whether the use of an electronic, sensor based stethoscope affects the cardiac auscultation skills of undergraduate medical students.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Forty eight third year medical students were randomized to use either an electronic stethoscope, or a conventional acoustic stethoscope during clinical auscultation training. After a training period of four months, cardiac auscultation skills were evaluated using four patients with different cardiac murmurs. Two experienced cardiologists determined correct answers. The students completed a questionnaire for each patient. The thirteen questions were weighted according to their relative importance, and a correct answer was credited from one to six points.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>No difference in mean score was found between the two groups (p = 0.65). Grading and characterisation of murmurs and, if present, report of non existing murmurs were also rated. None of these yielded any significant differences between the groups.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Whether an electronic or a conventional stethoscope was used during training and testing did not affect the students' performance on a cardiac auscultation test.</p>