Improving electrocardiogram interpretation skills for medical students

• Published in: Advances in medical education and practice 2017-01, Vol.8, p.75-78
• Main Authors: Patel, Kunj, El Tokhy, Omar, Patel, Shlok, Maroof, Hanna
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: electrocardiogram; Letter; medical education; Medical students; undergraduate
• ISSN: 1179-7258; 1179-7258
• DOI: 10.2147/AMEP.S129953

Kunj Patel,1 Omar El Tokhy,1 Shlok Patel,2 Hanna Maroof31Department of Investigative Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, 2Department of Medical Research, Faculty of Medicine, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, 3GKT School of Medical Education, Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, King's College of London, London, UKWe read with great interest the article by Zeng at al1 who propose a new electrocardiogram (ECG) teaching method called the "graphics-sequence memory method". An ECG is one of the most important diagnostic tests and is currently used as a gold standard for the diagnosis of a number of cardiac diseases. We appreciate that it can be a challenging concept to teach, often bringing frustration to the educators trained in ECG interpretation. Zeng et al1 highlight a deficiency in learning through the traditional Chinese disease-based teaching method, resulting in a relative inability to interpret ECGs where the diagnosis is not quite so straightforward. Accumulation of evidence2 has suggested that a significant proportion of undergraduate medical students do not feel competent in their interpretation of an ECG. Therefore, the authors are right to suggest a novel approach with the dual benefit of aiding teaching and improving learning and confidence when interpreting an ECG.View original paper by Zeng and colleagues.