EKG Textbook and Website Review

A discussion of some recommended EKG/ECG textbooks and educational websites.

Books discussed:
The Only EKG Book You'll Ever Need

A Practical Guide to ECG Interpretation

ECG Pocket Brain

Marriot's Practical Electrocardiography

[StrongMed]

Someone had left a comment here asking about a couple of other resources.  I'm afraid the comment is now gone - I don't know if the poster deleted it, or if some crazy YouTube algorithm mistakenly flagged it as spam, but let me try to answer his/her questions.

Regarding "ECG made simple":

There are actually 2 very similarly titled books: "ECGs Made Easy" by Barbara Aehlert, and "The ECG Made Easy" by John Hampton.  I couldn't locate a copy of the later, so let me just focus on the former - Aehlert's book (I forgot to check the edition our library had, but I think it was the 4th...).  I completely understand why some people like this book.  If you are looking for a thorough but not intimidating introduction to ECGs, this book physically feels and looks right.  The layout of the pages is well done, and the figures are great (though almost every figure in the entire book has been taken from other ECG texts; I would have thought it would be cheaper to hire someone to create de novo figures, rather than acquire image rights from 50 different competitors...)  The writing is clear and simple without being childish.  And there is a decent introduction to the foundations of normal cardiac electrophysiology.  But there's a number of significant negatives...While the book doesn't have many completely wrong statements (e.g. on the order of 2+2=5), there are times it presents concepts or uses terms in imperfect ways that I think most cardiologists would object to.  As just a couple of examples, she uses "sinus arrest" to mean "sinus pause", and also describes atrial flutter as being caused by an "irritable focus" when irritability (in the more technical sense of the word) has nothing to do with the propagation of flutter.  (Interestingly, the Khan Academy Medicine video on atrial flutter makes this exact same error - coincidence?)  The end-of-chapter crossword puzzles feel a little patronizing, perhaps even more so than Dubin's silly Mad Libs, fill-in-the-blank style writing.  Most significantly however, only 1 of 9 chapters discusses 12 lead ECGs.  The rest of the book is essentially about rhythm interpretation.  So ischemia/infarction, bundle branch blocks, hypertrophy, etc... all get shortchanged.  In summary, the book might appeal to students/professionals who anticipate a need to focus on single-lead arrhythmia interpretation, and the book is superior to Dubin, but I still can't recommend it to medical students.

Regarding the website, "www.ecgmadesimple.com":
I find any site that claims to be free but requires a login to see any content, to be irritating (though it's easy to create a completely bogus login).  If the site monitored progress with the material (e.g. Khan Academy, for which registration is optional) it would be at least understandable; but I can't understand why this site would require it unless it is just banking email addresses.  Regarding the site's actual content, my biggest complaint is that the ECG tracings are not anti-aliased.  For those unfamiliar with that term, it means that the tracings are very pixelated and thus, difficult to see.  This would have been a trivial problem to avoid at the time the images were scanned, and the fact that it wasn't makes me wonder how much thought was given to the final product.  Having fixed ECG images like these before, it is extremely time intensive to do after the fact.  The actual content is good, particularly the many examples once you get passed the aliasing problems.

Regarding the website, "www.learntheheart.com":
I'm always excited to see fellow supporters of the FOAMed movement as the site's author appears to be.  The site isn't just about ECGs, but all of cardiology (which will be a plus for most people).  However, the site's web design feels about 10 years outdated.  And while I appreciate the dude wants to keep his material free, the placement of ads on the site are too distracting.  The content itself is perfectly fine, and the quizzes are great except that you can't see the ECG and answer at the same time.  One last minor gripe is that watermarking ECGs is pet peeve of mine.  While people are free to do this all they want, ECGs aren't actually copyrightable (at least in the US), so watermarking them doesn't protect intellectual property, it just makes them non exportable, which seems to go against the FOAM philosophy just a little.

Hope that was helpful to the original poster, whose name unfortunately got deleted when his/her original post vanished from the feed.

[StrongMed]

@J Rochelle, I was waiting for someone to ask me about Dubin.  I'm going to be completely frank: I do not like Dubin's Rapid Interpretation of EKGs.  I know it's been the world's most popular EKG book for decades, but it is just not very good.  First, and I appreciate that this is a matter of opinion, the writing style doesn't seem to match its target audience.  Second, and this is less opinion, it is oversimplistic and frequently incorrect.  I have spent countless hours trying to undo bad habits and false tidbits that Dubin has imparted on my students and residents.  Third, the actual content it covers is too limited to be an adequate preparation for some residencies - particularly internal medicine, e med, and anesthesiology....(more...)

It had been the recommended text here at Stanford as well, but several of us have successfully converted most students over to The Only EKG Book You'll Ever Need (though as this video discusses, this book isn't perfect either). 


It's perhaps a minor point, especially after that previous one, but most people also don't realize that Dubin wasn't a cardiologist or internist or anything remotely related to reading EKGs - but rather a plastic surgeon.  That's not to say that a plastic surgeon can't be good at reading EKGs, but all things considered, it's probably best to learn a skill from someone who actually employs that skill in real life on a regular basis.

[robincraven]

Thank you so much, Dr. Strong, I have struggled with EKGs for three years and finally I am starting to feel like I can read them, thanks to you!

[freebirdincage]

I have read The only EKG book you'll ever need twice, and it's perfect for a student level .

[alaa]

Hello Dr. Strong
Since this video was uploaded ten years ago, can you recommend some new sources and websites to study ECG?
Hope you see this comment.
Appreciate all your effort and thank you so much.

[quothap]

Dr. Eric-- thank you so much for all of your videos! They got me through cardio and resp blocks last year, and I'm glad to see that you've got GI-specific videos going up! I was wondering what you think of Dubin's EKG book, which is recommended by my medical school.

[lamalas]

Hi Dr Eric, any updates about when you are going to finish your ECG book? Any chance you could release your ECG book in PDF format by chapters you have already completed at this stage so we can purchase/donate money for it? It could be helpful have your material in PDF format while watching the videos. It is fine if you couldn't finish all the chapters, something is better than nothing.

[fa]

This was very helpful, as a final year med student, who is few months away from internship, I really struggled with ecg, and I kept flipping between resources, tysm.. I will be download the ecg pocket brain book, and I will make sure to watch all your videos and share it to all my classmates.. I really do owe you alot!

[kingtout]

I am very happy to know you.
May God Bless you and reimburses you for your efforts.

[oliarte]

Goldberger! It is very well writte although very detailing (which it is not that bad). I think it's a must.

[arianabdulkhaliq]

Sir, i am really confused from which one is the best to learn the basics and then later just to practice

[MinuteMedicinePearls]

Hi,
I am a medical student from Bangladesh.
I like your videos very much.
I just wanted to thank you for all the efforts that you have put in making these extremely helpful videos.

[dr.chhabipanthi]

I am using your series and hoping for best achievement .

[prajwolpaneru]

What about Goldberger's Clinical Electrocardiography?

[arianabdulkhaliq]

so sir, which one to you as a student. who needs the basics

[hritiksharma]

Sir I have started watching your videos for learning EKG .I only want to ask you that can you make available some notes of your video available please.

[drramchandra]

Dear Sir, request you to please upload a video on stress test and stree echocardiography

[allaalla]

Doctor, so your videos are not enough to master ECG? Do I really need a book?

[أحمدعلي-نبق]

Please may be name textbook of EKG in UK and USA

[judypeng]

I had EKG make simple in my school, I try to buy one book that more advanced. I try to work in cardiac unit. Seems the second one is good