WHY IS A NEW ECG TEACHING TOOL NEEDED?

As the electrocardiogram (ECG) is an important basic investigation for evaluating cardiac conditions, it is essential to equip medical students, trainees and physicians with the ability to effectively interpret it.

Currently, a myriad of ECG books and applications exist to teach basic ECG reading skills. However, it remains difficult to find material that teaches intermediate-advanced concepts in a simple-to-understand fashion.

A team of Cardiologists (including Senior Residents and Consultants) at the National Heart Centre Singapore (NHCS) first identified this gap in learning when they witnessed fellow clinicians having difficulties interpreting ECG readings.

As such, they set out to develop a learning tool to teach these higher level ECG interpretation skills in a simple and practical way – one that would be useful for medical students and doctors in their daily clinical practice.

Over a few years of refinement and reviews, this culminated in the creation of a new electronic application.

INTRODUCING DR ECG

The interactive App – Dr ECG was launched end 2018. Since then, Dr ECG has been endorsed by several major cardiology societies, including the Chapter of Cardiologists, Singapore Cardiac Society and Asia Pacific Society of Cardiology.

INTERMEDIATE TO ADVANCED CONCEPTS MADE SIMPLE

Dr ECG does not intend to replicate what is already available in other ECG teaching tools, but instead, it focuses on teaching intermediate to advanced practical interpretation skills of common day-to-day clinical cases.

The App also aims to share best practices to improve clinical care. The App further incorporates case-based teaching using real-life case vignettes to aid learning. There are simple illustrations, curated content, practical tips and tricks, and useful algorithms for ECG interpretation.

​ PRACTICAL LEARNING WITH OVER 100 CASE SAMPLES One of the significant features of Dr ECG is its accessible library of more than 100 ECG examples, categorised by diagnosis. There are also summarised practical clinical learning pearls on related electrophysiology information, put together by the team of doctors in NHCS. To test and refresh knowledge, there is a series of interactive quizzes, where clinicians can learn from detailed explanations of the answers.