Artikel
Interdisciplinary teaching and learning: ECG diagnosis and surgical treatment of cardiac arrhythmias – Modern cardiac pacemaker, defibrillator and cardiac resynchronization therapy
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Veröffentlicht: | 5. September 2012 |
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According to a recent analysis, about 50,000 patients carry pacemakers in Austria. In the EU there are 2 million patients with such devices, worldwide 1 million of these systems are implanted per year. No matter to which medical discipline a medical doctor belongs ECG diagnosis and patients with implanted cardiac rhythm assist devices are indispensable in the daily medical practice. Currently, the ECG diagnosis and thus the diagnosis of cardiac arrhythmias as well as the management of these patients is usually limited to basic skills throughout any medical curriculum. Since the indication for the procedure and pre implant diagnostics are a domain of a cardiologist and the procedure is a domain of heart surgery, an interdisciplinary teaching approach is required. This innovative interdisciplinary approach has been designed at our university in order to provide students with an insight in the basic diagnostics of cardiac arrythmias and their management.
As part of a four-week special study module, the students have the opportunity to pursue both the underlying ECG diagnosis before and after pacemaker implantation as well as the implantation techniques in the operating room and surgical outpatient rehabilitation and observance. This interdisciplinary cooperation is based on a three-stage model: In the first stage of learning students have to pass a web based training after viewing virtual teaching units made available to the basics of rhythm diagnosis, the pathology of rhythm diagnosis and treatment options. After successful completion of these trainings, students are given the opportunity, to take a two-week work experience in both rhythm diagnosis and implantation of pacemaker systems. This concept is based on close cooperation between the two disciplines. The students are completely integrated in both teams and are provided an exclusive expertise and insight.