For the medical doctor or nurse, nothing is more relevant and useful than the use of the stethoscope. Ask any doctor or health professional, and he would most likely be using a littmann stethoscope.

It was in 1963 that the Harvard Medical School Professor David Littmann, a renowned cardiologist, invented a stethoscope which would revolutionize the world of medical auscultation.

Named after him, this invention continued to improve and develop, resulting in a highly acclaimed stethoscope named aptly, the 3M Littmann Cardiology Stethoscope.

This stethoscope is uniquely equipped to help the medical doctor pick up difficult-to-hear heart, lung and other body sounds admist distracting noises.

Using, the 3MŽs new Ambient Noise Reduction technology, it is possible to now reduce distracting room noise by an average of 75% (- 12 decibels) over the bell and diaphragm operating range. This is convincingly the most important feature of the littmann stethoscope.

Apart from this, the new tunable diaphragm technology used in Littmann Stethoscopes, allows the health practitioner to alter the pressure on the chest piece in order to change from bell mode to diaphragm mode and vice-versa. This makes it very versatile for adaptive use.

As a result, the technology has led to a whole new line of Littmann stethoscopes including the electronic Littmann Master Cardiology Stethoscope for infant, pediatric, and veterinary disciplines.

The Littmann stethoscopes are among the most popular stethoscopes for cardiologists where Littmann stethoscopes like Littmann cardiology III, Littmann cardiology STC, and Littmann Master classic II are used for both adult and pediatric auscultation.

One particular innovation is that the stethoscope carries a large side of the diaphragm and a small side diaphragm. The large side of the diaphragm is for adults and the small side is specially designed for sound with pediatric patients or extremely thin adult patients. This makes it a truly versatile tool for the doctor or nurse or cardiologist.

In addition to the standard adult size, Littmann offers a one-inch pediatric bell and the infant bell.

As nurses form the bedrock of the health system and require stethoscopes,they are not left behind. There are active online nursing forum communities where nurses from around the world discuss and share information about the use of medical and nursing tools such as the nursing littmann stethoscope, and there is a nurses’ kit including a littman stethoscope for members at special price.

The next time we see a doctor with a stethoscope, the chances are that he is using a littmann stethoscope, and we can be grateful to the efforts of the brilliant cardiologist Professor David Littmann.