The ‘NZMJ Alerts’ Category

Health food stores sell complimentary and alternative medicines (CAM), but they are not registered medicines.
Virtually all health food staff did not refer a researcher with a hypothetical case of high blood pressure to
a medical doctor, instead a variety of products of unproven efficacy were recommended. We recommend formal
training of health food store staff and that CAM use in New Zealand is regulated.

Are our medical graduates in New Zealand safe and accurate in ECG interpretation?
Nigel A Lever, Peter D Larsen, Mathew Dawes, Annie Wong, Scott A Harding

An electrocardiogram (ECG) is a common test used to assess heart electrical activity. The electrical behaviour of the heart can be disturbed in many disease conditions and these disturbances can be life-threatening in some. Recognition of abnormal ECGs can aid in the diagnosis of various conditions and enable early treatment where required. This study showed that recent medical graduates and senior medical students had deficiencies in their knowledge of common ECG abnormalities. Improved teaching in this area is required to raise the standard of ECG recognition and interpretation in our medical graduates.