Best resources to learn ECG?

[LUCPM]

Graduating MS4 here, would appreciate if anyone can recommend best resources/books to learn ECG beyond basics. I think I have the basics down but I'm nowhere near proficient or confident. TIA.

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[saudades]

Dubin's and ECGCompetency.com. My program had to give me a subscription to the latter so maybe yours will do the same, if not the author writes a good little book you can keep in your coat called ECG Pocket Brain. I think it's around $18-20 on Amazon.

 

[gman33]

Read, watch and listen to everything by Amal mattu and Steve smith.
Google to find the links.

Do this and you will be a master.

 

[TooMuchResearch]

Do the Mattu ECG books.
Hippo EM cardiology section has a bunch of ECG videos.
The archived free Mattu ECG of the week videos.

Eventually the Steve Smith ECG blog.

 

[Angry Birds]

Do the Mattu ECG books.
Hippo EM cardiology section has a bunch of ECG videos.
The archived free Mattu ECG of the week videos.

Eventually the Steve Smith ECG blog.

Co signed. Excellent advice.

Hippo EM's intro to EKG was absolutely awesome, then from there to Amal Mattu.

I feel like the ECG book was hard to go through without first that primer by watching the hippo EM and the Mattu videos.

I did the Mattu book during residency and then redid it recently after a year of attendship. Amazing the improvement when you actually are forced to read and interpret EKGs on your own.

I haven't seen Steven Smith's blog, but I probably should check it out.

 

[deleted77919]

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[link2swim06]

https://ecg.bidmc.harvard.edu/maven/welcome.asp?ref=displist.asp?ans=0

 

[deuist]

You should get Tomas Garcia's book The Art of Interpretation to get started. For true mastery, you need to read The Complete Guide to ECG's by O'Keefe – it's the book that cardiology fellows use. Also, read the Dr. Smith ECG blog and every article he's ever written.

 

[sawboned]

Smith's out of print text is wonderful - free download here: http://hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/7/d/0/7d0...61026656&hwt=cac661536de1dd8903b064e14c2a522f

Via EMCrit podcast.

 

[sonofva]

I've got 4 months until I start residency. I plan on going through 2 ecgs a day from the okeefe book. That means I'll hopefully get through it twice before I start training ...


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[IH8ColdWeath3r]

ECG academy is also a solid resource

 

[Ionian]

http://ecgsource.com/

Go big or go home

 

[wonderbread12]

Do the Mattu ECG books.
Hippo EM cardiology section has a bunch of ECG videos.
The archived free Mattu ECG of the week videos.

Eventually the Steve Smith ECG blog.

Is there a link for the archived videos? i could only find the paid content

 

[EKGdoc]

Graduating MS4 here, would appreciate if anyone can recommend best resources/books to learn ECG beyond basics. I think I have the basics down but I'm nowhere near proficient or confident. TIA.

Will echo may of the resources mentioned in the responses. Everyone's learning style is different. There's no one resource that does it all for EM and EKG's, but fortunately there are a lot out there. I would avoid Dubin's- it's totally inadequate for residency.

Having taught EKG's to residents in our program for many years, some other "tips"/thoughts:
1. You have to be as good as/better than the cardiologists at reading EKG's. Not necessarily some of the esoteric minutiae, but you'll need to know stone cold everything about ACS, arrhythmias, electrolyte problems, drug toxicities, etc.- stuff we see every day in the ED. There are many things Cards doesn't know about but EM does. You have to advocate for your patients and being a great EKG interpreter is one way to win the battle. (At least by the time you graduate, not starting out as an intern).
2. Make sure to review/read the EKGs on ALL the patients you take care of. Not just in the ED, but in the ICUs/other rotations as well. Don't just depend on the computer or "official" interpretations- sometimes they're wrong. Review their old ones and compare them. Look at other interesting EKGs in the ED if possible, you'll learn a lot from them. Review the EKG's with your attending as well. They need to help teach you about them- EKG interpretation is not a totally self-taught discipline.
3. Although pattern recognition is important, you also have to understand the physiology behind the EKG changes. Why does a LBBB look the way it does? What happens in the conduction system? Not every patient reads the book, and everyone's EKG looks a little different for a particular abnormality. If you don't know why they look that way, when something looks a little different, you'll miss it.
4. Develop a DDx for EKG abnormalities- i.e., what causes STE, ST depression, T wave inversion, hyperacute T waves, QRS widening, prolonged QT, etc. Most patients whose EKG's show STE are NOT having a STEMI- they have something else. If you don't know the DDx for STE- you won't figure it out. There are lots of causes for the different EKG changes and you need to know them. Similarly for the different diseases causing abnormal EKG's- who gets AFib, who gets VT, who develops complete heart block.

Just a few random thoughts. EKG's are a blast- knowing them well takes time but you can be really good at it.