How is your ECG interpretation?

Work through curated collections of published ECGs, one decision at a time, then see your accuracy, sensitivity and specificity alongside a worked explanation for every tracing. Challenge yourself with 36 ECGs, no time limit.

Questions

What is That ECG Test?

A free self-assessment for anyone who reads 12-lead ECGs. You work through a published collection of tracings one at a time, answering a single question about each, and when you have answered them all you get your accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity scored against the physicians in the study the collection came from, plus a worked explanation for every ECG.

Is it free, and do I need an account?

It is free and there is no account. Nothing here requires your name, your email, or a form of payment. You can start an assessment straight from the front page. See the assessments.

Who is it for?

Anyone who has to look at a 12-lead ECG and decide something: emergency physicians, cardiologists, hospitalists, residents and registrars, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, paramedics, nurses, and students. The questions are the ones asked on a real shift, so no particular level of training is assumed.

How long does it take?

There is no time limit and nothing on the page is timed. Allow roughly 27 minutes for the longest collection here, which runs to 36 ECGs, though people who linger over a tracing take a good deal longer. You can stop partway and come back later in the same browser, your place is kept.

Where do the ECGs come from?

Every collection is a set of real cases published in a peer-reviewed paper, shown the way that paper's own respondents saw them: the tracing alone, with no history, no troponin and no prior ECG. Right now that is the 36-ECG McCabe 2013 set, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association in 2013 (PMID 24096575). The tracings are used under the licence each paper was published with (CC BY-NC 4.0), and every assessment credits its source on its own page.

How did real physicians score on these ECGs?

Worse than you may think, which is why the collections were published in the first place. The physicians shown the McCabe 2013 set got roughly one in three of them wrong, and individual readers varied widely. Your results page puts your own score next to the cardiologists and emergency physicians from the study, item by item.

Do I get CME or continuing education credit?

No. There is no CME, no accreditation, and no continuing education credit of any kind attached to this site. It is practice and a score, not a qualification, and it is not a diagnostic tool or intended for use on a real patient.

What is the certificate, and how does somebody check it?

Finishing an assessment gives you a certificate with an unique code on it. Anyone you hand that code to can look it up and see the score it was issued for, with no account and no login. Your name appears on the certificate only if you choose to put it there. Verify a certificate.

What is an organization code, and can I get one for my program?

A code issued to an employer, residency, training program, course, or study. Participants enter it before they start, and the organization can then see the results its code collected -- scores, per-ECG breakdowns and comparisons between groups -- with no names attached to any of it. If you were sent a code, enter it in the box above. If you would like one for your own department or program, or you have a published case collection you would like included, get in touch. Email me.

What happens to my answers?

While you are taking an assessment nothing leaves your browser. When you finish, your answers and the four background questions are stored without a name on them, which is what makes it possible to show you how everyone else answered the same tracing. Nothing is sold or advertised against.