Impact of a clinical scenario on accuracy of electrocardiogram interpretation

To examine the effect of clinical history on the electrocardiogram (ECG) interpretation skills of physicians with different levels of expertise, we randomly allocated to an ECG test package 30 final-year medical students, 15 second-year internal medicine residents, and 15 university cardiologists at university-affiliated teaching hospitals. All participants interpreted the same set of 10 ECGs. Each ECG was accompanied by a brief clinical …