Presentation Title:

 

Beyond Heart Sounds -The Interactive Cardiac Exam

 

John Michael Criley, M.D., 

Harbor-UCLA Medical Center

 

Abstract:

Medical students and postgraduate physicians have not been adequately trained to identify important heart sounds and murmurs for several decades, resulting in poor test performance in published studies and poorly trained instructors that perpetuate these deficiencies.  The economic impact is increased utilization of expensive, often unnecessary and potentially hazardous procedures.  These clinical skills are difficult to learn from textbooks, and (ideally) should be taught at the bedside by exposure to a full spectrum of cardiac diseases and a skilled and tireless instructor. Since this ideal is rarely available to the 15,000 medical graduates each year, we have developed an interactive multimedia CD-ROM program permitting exposure to multiple patients in whom visible findings (e.g., carotid, jugular, and precordial pulsations) are combined with simultaneous cardiac auscultation.  The stethoscope may be moved by clicking on different precordial positions, and close-up and wide angle video clips of the patients may be selected. These studies are introduced with each patient's history, and allow access to the electrocardiogram, chest x-ray, and echocardiogram. The student is asked to answer multiple questions which are instantly graded, collated, and archived.  Other features include a Tutorial that reviews normal cardiac radiographic and functional anatomy, pathophysiology of valve lesions, and timing of venous and arterial pulses.  A "Sound Builder" permits the student to assemble multiple combinations of sounds and murmurs to match those heard from the patients.

 

Benefit in Attending Session:

These studies can best be appreciated by listening via stethophones while interacting with the integrated sounds and graphics, answering questions, and being graded on the answers. We can provide multiple hard-wired listening devices (up to 40) and can demonstrate the graphics with our laptop (15" screen), or CRT or LCD projector if the group is large (>10).

 

PRIMARY AUTHOR'S INFORMATION

John Michael Criley, M.D.

Harbor-UCLA Medical Center

1124 W. Carson St. RB-2

Torrance, CA 90502

Telephone Number: (310) 222-2532

Fax Number: (310) 787-0448

E-mail Address: jmcriley@ucla.edu

 

Web Site: www.armus.com (ask for heart sounds demo)

 

CO-AUTHORS' INFORMATION

David Criley, Stuart Criley

Armus Corporation

1818 Gilbreth Rd, #211

Burlingame, CA 94010

Telephone Number(s): 1-800-94ARMUS

Fax Number(s): (650) 697-7555

E-mail Address(es):

david@armus.com  

s.criley@armus.com

 

Web Site(s): www.armus.com (ask for heart sounds demo)