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Using a multimedia tool to improve cardiac auscultation knowledge and skills

  • Innovations In Education And Clinical Practice
  • Published:
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Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Today’s medical school graduates have significant deficits in physical examination skills. Medical educators have been searching for methods to effectively teach and maintain these skills in students. The objective of this study was to determine if an auscultation curriculum centered on a portable multimedia CD-ROM was effective in producing and maintaining significant gains in cardiac auscultatory skills.

DESIGN: Controlled cohort study

PARTICIPANTS: All 168 third-year medical students at 1 medical school in an academic medical center.

INTERVENTIONS: Students were tested before and after exposure to 1 or more elements of the auscultation curriculum: teaching on ward/clinic rotations, CD-ROM comprehensive cases with follow-up seminars, and a CD-ROM 20-case miniseries. The primary outcome measures were student performance on a 10-item test of auscultation skill (listening and identifying heart sound characteristics) and a 30-item test of auscultation knowledge (factual questions about auscultation). A subset of students was tested for attenuation effects 9 or 12 months after the intervention.

RESULTS: Compared with the control group (1 month clinical rotation alone), students who were also exposed to the CD-ROM 20-case miniseries had significant improvements in auscultation skills scores (P<.05), but not knowledge. Additional months of clerkship, comprehensive CD-ROM cases, and follow-up seminars increased auscultation knowledge beyond the miniseries alone (P<.05), but did not further improve auscultation skills. Students’ auscultation knowledge diminished one year after the intervention, but auscultation skills did not.

CONCLUSION: In addition to the standard curriculum of ward and conference teaching, portable multimedia tools may help improve quality of physical examination skills.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. the University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, Mich

    Angela L. Lang MD

  2. Department of Internal Medicine, Ann Arbor, Mich

    David T. Stern MD, PhD, Cyril M. Grum MD & Richard D. Judge MD, FACC

  3. Department of Medical Education, Ann Arbor, Mich

    Larry D. Gruppen PhD

  4. the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, Ann Arbor, Mich

    David T. Stern MD, PhD

Authors
  1. David T. Stern MD, PhD
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  2. Rajesh S. Mangrulkar MD
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  3. Larry D. Gruppen PhD
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  4. Angela L. Lang MD
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  5. Cyril M. Grum MD
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  6. Richard D. Judge MD, FACC
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to David T. Stern MD, PhD.

Additional information

This study was supported, in part, through a grant from the 3M Health Care Corporation.

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Stern, D.T., Mangrulkar, R.S., Gruppen, L.D. et al. Using a multimedia tool to improve cardiac auscultation knowledge and skills. J GEN INTERN MED 16, 763–769 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1525-1497.2001.10347.x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1525-1497.2001.10347.x

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