title: What adult electrocardiogram (ECG) diagnoses and/or findings do residents in emergency medicine need to know?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  There is no evidence-based description of electrocardiogram (ECG) interpretation competencies for emergency medicine (EM) trainees. The first step in defining these competencies is to develop a prioritized list of adult ECG findings relevant to EM contexts. The purpose of this study was to categorize the importance of various adult ECG diagnoses and/or findings for the EM trainee.
  
  
  METHODS
  We developed a list of potentially important adult ECG diagnoses/findings and conducted a Delphi opinion-soliciting process. Participants used a 4-point Likert scale to rate the importance of each diagnosis for EM trainees. Consensus was defined as a minimum of 75% agreement at the second round or later. In the absence of consensus, stability was defined as a shift of 20% or less after successive rounds.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A purposive sampling of 22 emergency physicians participated in the Delphi process, and 16 (72%) completed the process. Of those, 15 were from 11 different EM training programs across Canada and one was an expert in EM electrocardiography. Overall, 78 diagnoses reached consensus, 42 achieved stability and one diagnosis achieved neither consensus nor stability. Out of 121 potentially important adult ECG diagnoses, 53 (44%) were considered "must know" diagnoses, 61 (50%) "should know" diagnoses, and 7 (6%) "nice to know" diagnoses.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We have categorized adult ECG diagnoses within an EM training context, knowledge of which may allow clinical EM teachers to establish educational priorities. This categorization will also facilitate the development of an educational framework to establish EM trainee competency in ECG interpretation.
authors.affiliation: *McGill Emergency Medicine Residency Program,McGill University,Montreal,QC,Canada.
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Patocka
authors.affiliation: ‡Emergency Medicine Department,Jewish General Hospital,Montreal QC,Canada.
authors.forename: Joel
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Turner
authors.affiliation: †McGill Centre for Medical Education,McGill University,Montreal,QC,Canada.
authors.forename: Jeffrey
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wiseman
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002983:Clinical Competence; D004503:Education, Medical, Graduate / Q000379:methods*; D004562:Electrocardiography; D004635:Emergency Medicine / Q000193:education*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D009885:Ophthalmology / Q000193:education*
keywords: Delphi; Education; Electrocardiogram; Emergency Medicine; Resident