When it comes to health and the diagnostic instruments and tools required to serve health, the factors of quality, precision and accuracy are of the highest priority.

For the doctor or nurse, nothing is more relevant and useful than the use of the stethoscope. Ask any doctor or healthcare professional, and chances are they’ll be using a littman stethoscope.

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

Named in his honor, this invention continued to be improved and developed, resulting in a highly acclaimed stethoscope aptly named the 3M Littmann Cardiology Stethoscope.

This stethoscope is uniquely equipped to help the clinician detect heart sounds, lung sounds, and other hard-to-hear body sounds that admit of distracting noises.

Using new 3M Ambient Noise Reduction technology, it is now possible to reduce disturbing 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 Littman stethoscope.

Apart from this, the new tunable diaphragm technology used in Littman stethoscopes allows the healthcare professional to modify the pressure on the chest piece to switch from bell to diaphragm mode and vice versa. This makes it very versatile for adaptive use.

As a result, the technology has spawned an entirely new line of Littmann stethoscopes, including the Littmann Master Cardiology Electronic Stethoscope for pediatric, pediatric and veterinary disciplines.

Littmann stethoscopes are among the most popular stethoscopes for cardiologists, where Littman stethoscopes such as Littman 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 diaphragm side and a small diaphragm side. The large side of the diaphragm is for adults and the small side is specially designed to sound with pediatric patients or extremely thin adult patients. This makes it a truly versatile tool for the doctor, nurse or cardiologist.

In addition to the standard adult size, Littman offers a one-inch pediatric hood and an infant hood.

Since nurses form the foundation of the healthcare system and require stethoscopes, they are not far behind. There are active online nursing forum communities where nurses from around the world discuss and share information on the use of nursing and medical tools, such as the littmann nursing stethoscope, and there is a nurse kit that includes a littman stethoscope for members at a special price.

The next time we see a doctor with a stethoscope, chances are they are using a Littman stethoscope, and we can thank the efforts of the brilliant cardiologist Professor David Littmann.