A Review of Littman Stethoscopes

Dr. David Littman, a famous cardiologist, inventor, and Harvard Medical School professor, greatly improved the acoustic qualities of stethoscopes in 1963. He believed it was vital to have a stethoscope with two chestpieces, an open one used to hear low pitch sounds and a closed, flat chestpiece to pick up higher pitched sounds. His ideas enabled doctors to get quicker, more accurate readings on patient