Littmann's goal was to produce a stethoscope that could reproduce sounds more loudly and clearly than could the stethoscopes on the market at the time, and one that would be lighter than the existing heavyweights.

You're sitting at the edge of the examining table in your physician's office, ready for your annual physical. The doctor takes a stethoscope from the pocket of her white coat, arranges the ear pieces and places the scope on your chest. "Take a deep breath," she orders.

You have just been sounded out by a marvel of science revolutionized nearly four decades ago by one David Littmann. A renowned cardiologist who died in 1981 at the age of 74, Littmann was an associate clinical professor of medicine at the Medical School. His shining career spanned more than 30 years, during which he served as chief of cardiology at the West Roxbury Veterans Administration (WRVA) Medical Center and as medical director of the company he founded, Cardiosonics Inc.

Littmann has been affectionately called "an inveterate gadgeteer" by his Medical School colleagues because he was always tinkering with the tools of his trade. In addition to the Littmann Stethoscope, he invented the Littmann Catheter, the Littmann Multi-Valve for use in coronary angiography, and the Littmann Electrocardiogram (EKG) Mounter, which resulted in an enormous savings in time and effort on the part of the EKG technician.

Littmann's academic career at WRVA included clinical teaching and cardiovascular research, which colleagues have said "brought him to a distinguished position among the country's leading cardiologists."

"There were four giants in cardiology in the late 1950s, and Dave Littmann was one of them," recalls Arthur Sasahara, professor of medicine emeritus at the Medical School and a senior physician in the Department of Medicine. "Each of these physicians had a specialty, and Dave Littmann's was electrocardiography. We didn't have all the nice tools then that we have today, but we had the electrocardiogram and he was the acknowledged expert in its use and interpretation."

Of Basements and Mousetraps

Sasahara first met Littmann in 1957, when Sasahara's cardiology fellowship began under his tutelage. The two worked closely together in the ensuing years.

In their most lengthy and intensive project, Sasahara worked alongside Littmann as he perfected his vision for a new stethoscope. "Dave Littmann was always looking to make a better mousetrap," says Sasahara with a smile.

Littmann toiled on new stethoscope designs in his basement, where he had set up a sophisticated workshop with a complete set of metalworking tools. His goal was to produce a stethoscope that could reproduce heart sounds and murmurs more loudly and clearly than the ones on the market at the time, and one that would be lighter than the existing heavyweights.

"Dave went through 30 different iterations before he came to the one he liked," Sasahara says.

"The most immediately attractive feature of the Littmann Stethoscope was its portability," says Ram Sharma, associate professor of medicine at the Medical School and associate chief of cardiology at WRVA. "The others were heavy and cumbersome, so this lightweight, sleek stethoscope was revolutionary."

Sasahara agrees, saying earlier models "were awkward and big -- like a weapon. So Dave streamlined it, he made it of lighter metal so you could carry it around in your pocket. It was slick, easy to carry, and it had better all-around acoustics."

Though, as Sasahara says, "Dave never used his friendships in the medical community to promote his stethoscope," inevitably the word got out that Littmann was on to something. Physicians and fellows at the VA Hospital were the first to test Littmann's stethoscopes as he turned them out from his basement workshop. "Anyone who asked for one, he'd just give it to them."

Just as inevitably, this better mousetrap began gaining in notoriety. By 1960, and with the help of a modest advertising effort, Littmann was receiving regular orders for his stethoscope.

"He was selling 10 to 20 of them a week at that time," Sasahara says. "We'd fill the orders at night, in his basement. In 1960 and '61, I was down there every night. His wife would box them up and mail them the next morning."

By 1961, Sasahara recalls, it was clear to Littmann that his stethoscope was commercially viable. That's when he formed Cardiosonics.

Over the next six years, Cardiosonics grew in profitability. In 1967, industry giant 3M acquired Littmann's company.

That was when Carl Davis, plant manager at 3M's Cambridge manufacturing facility, met Littmann. Dr. Littmann continued to act as a consultant with 3M after the acquisition, Davis says. "He used to come in two days a week, and he worked on stethoscopes in the plant basement. He was very dynamic, his energy was infectious. He was also very down-to-earth."

Still a Jewel

Davis sums up, "The Littmann Stethoscope is considered the jewel in the marketplace. The classic stethoscope that Littmann developed is still the most widely accepted in the field, worldwide."

Sasahara concurs. "I still have the gold stethoscope Dave Littmann gave me in 1960. I still use it."

Just as the Littmann Stethoscope remains the most widely used today, so does Littmann the man stand as an emblem of quality for those who studied under him. Says Sasahara, "even to this day, if you can say 'I studied with Littmann,' that carries a lot of weight."