Deep Learning-Based Arrhythmia Detection in Electrocardiograph

This study aimed to explore the application of electrocardiograph (ECG) in the diagnosis of arrhythmia based on the deep convolutional neural network (DCNN). ECG was classified and recognized with the DCNN. The specificity (Spe), sensitivity (Sen), accuracy (Acc), and area under curve (AUC) of the DCNN were evaluated in the Chinese Cardiovascular Disease Database (CCDD) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology-Beth Israel Hospital (MIT-BIH) arrhythmia database, respectively. The results showed that in the CCDD, the original model tested by the small sample set had an accuracy (Acc) of 82.78% and AUC of 0.882, while the Acc and AUC of the translated model were 85.69% and 0.893, respectively, so the difference was notable ( P < 0.05); the Acc of the original model and the translated model was 80.12% and 82.63%, respectively, in the large sample set, so the difference was obvious ( P < 0.05). In the MIT-BIH database, the Acc of normal (N) heart beat (HB) (99.38%) was higher than that of the atrial premature beat (APB) (87.45%) ( P < 0.05). In a word, applying the DCNN could improve the Acc of ECG for classification and recognition, so it could be well applied to ECG signal classification.

‘The House of God’: reflections 40 years on, in conversation with author Samuel Shem

The House of God is a seminal work of medical satire based on the gruelling internship experiences of Samuel Shem at the Beth Israel Hospital. Thirteen ‘Laws’ were offered to rationalise the seemingly chaotic patient management and flow. There have been large shifts in the healthcare landscape and practice since, so we consider whether these medical truisms are still applicable to contemporary National Health Service practice and propose updates where necessary:People are sometimes allowed to die.GOMERs (Get Out of My Emergency Room) still go to ground.Master yourself, join the multidisciplinary team.The patient is the one with the disease, but not the only one suffering.Placement (discharge planning) comes first.There is no body cavity that cannot be reached with a gentle arm and good interventional radiologists.Fit the rule to the patient rather than the patient to the rule.They can always pay you less.The only bad admission is a futile one.If you don’t take a temperature you can’t find a fever and if you are not going to act on it, don’t do the test.Show me a BMS (best medical student) who ONLY triples my work, and I’ll show you a future Foundation Year 1 doctor (FY1) who is an asset to the firm.Interpret radiology freely, but share your clinical findings with the radiologist and in a timely fashion.Doing nothing can be a viable option.These were developed in conversation with Samuel Shem, who also offers further insight on the creation of the original laws.

Mark E Josephson: The Boston Years

Mark Josephson came to Beth Israel Hospital from the University of Pennsylvania in 1992, having firmly established a reputation as a master clinician, scientist and educator. He had built one of the premier electrophysiology (EP) services in the world in Pennsylvania and had become Chief of Cardiology there by the age of 35. In those days, Beth Israel was well known for its interventional cardiology and cardiac imaging but had not yet committed to the development of a modern EP section. The buzz surrounding Mark’s arrival predicted an outspoken, larger than life and irreverent character who would profoundly change the place.

On Writing about the Seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe and His Hasidim

When Menachem Friedman and I resolved to write what became The Rebbe: The Life and the Afterlife of Menachem Mendel Schneerson, we did so because as sociologists we were puzzled, as we put it in our preface, by how a “a small Hasidic group that seemed on the verge of collapse in 1950 with the death of their sixth leader” had replanted itself in America and in less than a generation “gained fame and influence throughout the world in ways no one could have imagined” at the time their next and thus far last rebbe, Menaḥem Mendel Schneerson, took over the reins of leadership in 1951. More than that, we were quite amazed that this group, which at its height during the twentieth century was never among the largest hasidic sects and probably numbered at most about 100,000 worldwide, had managed to become among the most well-known hasidim in the world. We were no less struck that they had found ways to make their Jewish outreach efforts, as well as their extraordinarily parochial belief that the contemporary world had entered messianic times (and that only Lubavitchers and their rebbe knew how to hasten his coming), both newsworthy and known far beyond the borders of the hasidic world. Through a series of directed campaigns that aimed to transform Jewry and the world, many, if not most Lubavitchers had also tried to convince the world that their leader, who had reigned over them from Brooklyn for forty-three years, was the Messiah incarnate, even as he lay dying at Beth Israel Hospital in New York.