Pediatric cardiology
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Pediatric cardiology · Jul 2003
Comparative StudyThe emergency department versus the computer: which is the better electrocardiographer?
Electrocardiograms (ECGs) are frequently ordered in the pediatric emergency department (ED). Pediatric cardiologists are generally not asked to interpret every ECG; thus, ED patient management is often guided by the ED physicians' ECG interpretation. The objective of this study was to analyze the accuracy of ECG interpretation by ED physicians and a computer-generated interpretation and compare the two. ⋯ For the class IV ECGs, both the computer and the ED physicians performed poorly, correctly interpreting just 14% and 28%, respectively. The computer proved to be more accurate than the ED physicians in interpreting ECGs of less than critical significance (classes II and III), but neither group was able to correctly interpret even a simple majority of the most significant abnormalities (class IV). We speculate that distributing the computer-generated interpretation to the ED physicians and formal review of all ED ECGs by a skilled interpreter may decrease the number of missed diagnoses.