My Way of Becoming a Good ECG Reader

My first days of learning about ECG was during the summer of second year at the medical school. I went through the graduation test with very little knowledge about ECG. I started learning ECG by comparing the ECG tracings with the echocardiographic results. However, the echo could not help in case of arrhythmia. So I spent my time reading the “Marriott's Practical Electrocardiography” – kind of textbook of ECG. It was so boring and I quickly gave up the goal of finishing the book. Then I changed to another strategy. Every time I saw an arrhythmic case, I went back home reading a whole chapter about some entity. This strategy proved to be effective. Gradually my skill of interpreting an ECG was built up. From the point of reading an ECG superficially and making a quick diagnosis (which is erroneous most of the time), I became very tedious in finding subtle abnormal signs. When you work really hard, life always has some rewards. I had been selected to study abroad about cardiac electrophysiology. Nowadays, being the Head of Cardiac Electrophysiology department in my hospital, my daily work is to deal with challenging arrhythmic cases. Interpreting elusive ECG tracings is always a passion for me.

Desarrollo de una herramienta de software como soporte a pruebas de egreso de la licenciatura / Development of a Software Tool as Support for Graduation Test

Como una estrategia de apoyo para el fortalecimiento de los conocimientos previos al examen general de egreso de la licenciatura, y como un medio de entrenamiento para la prueba, se desarrolló una herramienta de autoevaluación por computadora que considera los tipos de reactivos propuestos en la prueba EGEL. Se siguió la metodología orientada a objetos de James Rumbaugh para el desarrollo del software; también, se analizaron trabajos previos que evalúan conocimientos a través de herramientas informáticas, y se realizaron diversas pruebas con usuarios que permiten evaluar la funcionalidad y mejora futura de la herramienta propuesta. Los resultados de la utilización de la herramienta muestran las áreas del EGEL con mayores fortalezas y debilidades.

Going to a Better School: Effects and Behavioral Responses

This paper applies a regression discontinuity design to the Romanian secondary school system, generating two findings. First, students who have access to higher achievement schools perform better in a (high stakes) graduation test. Second, the stratification of schools by quality in general, and the opportunity to attend a better school in particular, result in significant behavioral responses: (i) teachers sort in a manner consistent with a preference for higher achieving students; (ii) children who make it into more selective schools realize they are relatively weaker and feel marginalized; (iii) parents reduce effort when their children attend a better school. (JEL I21, I28, J13)