Take steps to improve your ECG reading ability

If you are taking ACLS [advanced cardiac life support] for the first time or just trying to improve your ECG reading capabilities, the ECG Learning Center (http://medlib.med.utah.edu/kw/ecg/intro.html) is the site to study.

This interactive tutorial was developed by Frank Yanowitz, MD, associate professor of medicine at LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City. The information is based on a learning program developed by Alan Lindsay, MD, a master teacher of electrocardiography, and is an introduction to clinical electrocardiography.

The tutorial is organized into sections. Each section provides teaching points, often linked to illustrations, and an interactive quiz. The ECG categories contain hundreds of 12- and six-lead ECGs that are described as ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous, simple to complex, boring to fascinating.

Each of the ECGs has an interpretation and additional explanations to help clarify the diagnosis. The site includes a comprehensive series of quizzes to test your newfound knowledge.

Track ER status
Ten hospitals in Northern Virginia now host a new computer tracking system that instantly tells 911 operators which hospitals are full and where to divert patients. This saves ambulance crews crucial time in the rapidly growing region where hospitals often are filled to capacity.

The Internet-based system was developed by EYT of Chantilly, Va., and allows dispatchers to immediately identify which hospitals have space and direct rescuers there. The system automatically updates every minute and shows not only emergency room availability, but intensive care beds as well.

In the past, nursing supervisors were forced to spend hours calling other hospitals to find ICU beds for patients waiting in the emergency department. Nurses now have that information available immediately.

For details, visit www.eyt.com/index.jsp and click EYT News/Media Mentions.

Diabetes resource
The American Diabetes Association site (www.diabetes.org) features many teaching tools. The site is a comprehensive resource for nurses and laypeople. The professionals' section, "Practice Recommendations," contains the full text of the ADA's position statements, standards of care, nutritional recommendations for diabetes and guides for diagnosis and screening.

The highlight of the site is an interactive tool for people with diabetes, a virtual grocery store. Users initially are presented with an overview of the basic principles of meal planning for diabetics and are shown how to read food labels. They are then sent down the store aisles to shop.

As shoppers proceed through each aisle, they are given reminders about a healthy diabetic diet to help choose items to add to their cart. At the end of the shopping experience, users submit their choices and immediately are provided a review with detailed information regarding their choices.

This is a great follow-up tool for patients who have taken a diabetes education class-the interactive program without any pressure reinforces what they have learned in class.

Control blood pressure
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute site (www.nhlbi.nih.gov) provides information for laypeople trying to control their blood pressure through dietary means and for health professionals who counsel patients at high risk for heart disease.

"Health Information" provides resources on hypertension, cholesterol, obesity and heart attack. Information is categorized for patients/general public and health care/other professionals.

Available material includes a step-by-step booklet on eating to lower blood cholesterol, recommendations for dietary salt reduction and clinical guidelines for the overweight and obese.

The site also provides in-depth information on obesity, asthma, emphysema, sickle cell, blood transfusion safety and sleep disorders.

Grand rounds
If your hospital doesn't provide grand round opportunities, you still can find them on the Internet. Cyberounds (www.cyberounds.com) presents online grand rounds for physicians, medical students, nurses and other health care professionals.

Registration to the site is free, but you are required to provide professional credentials and log in. Once you are registered, you can attend any conference.

Topics are divided into the categories of cardiovascular medicine, health law and bioethics, nutrition, emergency medicine, hematology/oncology, psychiatry/neuroscience, endocrinology, laboratory medicine, pulmonary medicine, gastroenterology, medical genetics, rheumatolgy, geriatrics, nephrology and women's health.

You can check out an exhaustive list of available grand round topics, covering a diverse set of cases. Just a few of the cases listed include sudden collapse in a young person, the obtunded man, sepsis, vertigo and medical abortion by RU-486.

The site also offers a bulletin board where you can post questions and discuss the topics.

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