iPods: Entertaining AND good for your heart

Temple University professor Michael Barrett, M.D., had an interesting dilemma: how can doctors better distinguish normal heartbeat sounds from abnormal ones (i.e. heart murmurs)? The answer lay in an ordinary iPod. Recently, 149 physicians spent 90 minutes listening to five common
heart murmurs: aortic stenosis, aortic regurgitation, mitral stenosis, mitral regurgitation and innocent systolic murmur. The general internists listened to these murmurs 400 times. While previous studies had found a 40 percent rate of correct identification among physicians, this iPod-laden session raised that average to 80 percent.

But why all the fuss about repetitive listening? We’ll let the good doctor explain:

Listening to the heart, known as cardiac auscultation, is, Barrett believes, a technical skill and therefore best learned through intensive drilling and repetition, not by traditional methods, usually a classroom lecture or demonstration in medical school and then on the job.

. The heart sounds have also been posted to the Temple University School of Medicine website, where medical students can download them as MP3s, listen and then be tested on their new skills.

[Via Macworld UK]