Recently, I was contacted by Dr. Jennifer Namazy who came up with a very cute way to decorate your stethoscope.  Dr. Namazy started CharMED, which sells sparkly crystal cuff charms for your stethoscope.  The “about” page on her site says, “From ugly scrubs to dreary white lab coats, ask any woman in the medical field and they will agree…there are few opportunities to sparkle.”

Besides jewelry (which we are normally encouraged NOT to wear), medical professionals really don’t have many ways to jazz up their wardrobe for work.  Dr. Namazy graciously gave me a charm to review AND is giving one away to any codeblog reader that leaves a comment on this post stating what color charm they’d like to have.  More on that later!

I recently received my iridescent charm in the mail and immediately went to put it on my stethoscope.  It fits well and looks great.  It does slide up and down the tubing, but it came with a foam insert that you can also use to help it stay put.  It’s very sparkly and quite pretty.

I asked Dr. Namazy a few questions about her charms.  She says that she and the other medical professionals she works with felt limited in terms of being able to show some style and bling in the workplace.  Knowing how popular charm bracelets are with the staff (giving them the opportunity to show off their favorite colors, initials, etc) she thought it would be cool to have charms for stethoscopes!

The charms needed to be seamless, preferably without clasps that could loosen or come open.  She designed the shape of the charm herself so that it would fit snugly on the stethoscope’s pliable tubing.

Of course there is always concern about germs, especially in hospitals.  To head off any problems there, Dr. Namazy chose a metal that is naturally antibacterial for the base of the charm.  It can be easily cleaned with an alcohol pad and doing so will not damage the crystals that adorn it!

The charms have been available for about 5 months and are already popping up in hospital gift shops around San Diego.  She has plans to expand nationally soon, but the charms are available now in her online store at get-charmed.com.  You can also find her on Facebook and Twitter.

And as I mentioned before, there’s a giveaway for codeblog’s readers.  Just leave a comment stating which color you like best, and one commenter will be randomly chosen to receive that charm.  Good luck!  The contest ends on Wednesday, December 12th.  (12/12/12!)

(Update:  Contest CLOSED!  The winner is Megan, who left the 7th comment.  Thanks everyone!)