Request for Funding

Medical Student Research Fellowship for Summer 2004

Mentor: Jim Wagner, MD
Department: Internal Medicine
Room number: B5.310
Mail Code: 9006
Phone number: 214 648 2168
E-mail: james.wagner@UTSouthwestern.edu
Project title: An Assessment of Methods to Improve Cardiac Auscultation Skills

Human subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable): 0403-250
Animal subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable): N/A

Project Type: patient-based research

Brief Description of Project:
Background:
Many studies have documented that cardiac auscultation skills in members of the academic health care team are in need of improvement. From medical student to faculty member and cardiologist, diagnostic accuracy is low, between 30 and 60%. Few studies have evaluated techniques to improve the accuracy of cardiac auscultation.

Methods:
In the context of an in-patient teaching service, this study will assess two educational techniques to improve cardiac auscultation skills: "team consensus" and the Cardionics Simulscope. Team consensus is a technique where each member of the health care team (2-4 medical students, 1-2 interns, 1 resident, and 1 faculty) listens to a patient, commits to a diagnosis by recording his or her findings on a standardized form, and after everyone has listened, discusses his or her assessment with the rest of the team. Members of the team are then allowed to commit to a new diagnosis by recording his or her findings on another standardized form. Immediately following this discussion, the team is provided with the echocardiography results as a gold standard. The Cardionics Simulscope is an electronic stethoscope that allows each team member to listen simultaneously.

Change in diagnostic accuracy will be analyzed by group (i.e. Team consensus vs. control and Simulscope vs. standard auscultation) for 1) all participants and 2) for subgroups by educational level (e.g. medical students, interns, residents, and faculty)

Previous Research Activities or Publications with Medical Students:

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