A New Audiovisual Aid to Heart-Sound Instruction

Abstract

The use of audiovisual aids to supplement clinical experience in auscultation continues to be studied and evaluated by medical educators. Early audiovisual aids, such as long-playing tapes and phonograph records, were of limited value because they presented a large amount of information at a fixed rate and sequence, and did not actively engage the student in the learning process. Devices incorporating single-example magnetic disks or electronically simulated heart sounds, coupled with oscilloscopic display, have been major advances but are expensive and often complex to operate. This communication describes a new audiovisual instrument for heart-sound instruction which is inexpensive, simple to operate, and useful both as a self-instructional device and as a classroom aid. It is multidimensional in that it incorporates simultaneous audio and visual representation of heart sounds and a correlative text. <h3>Method</h3> The basic unit is a two-channel tape recorder, unique in that the magnetic tape is mounted on