Professor Jon Drezner emphasises the need for careful planning and practice of emergency protocols in the sports medicine setting. He also shares the new criteria for ECG screening - these lead to a much lower false positive rate than was previously reported. He makes a compelling case to include a resting 12-lead ECG in the periodic health examination of athletes.

In this podcast he previews the international collaboration to improve the criteria for interpreting ECGs in athletes. These ‘Seattle criteria’ will be shared for free world-wide via BMJ Learning though sponsorship by numerous stakeholders including FIFA, AMSSM, PACES and ESC.

0.47 Has there been an increase in the rate of sudden cardiac death in sportspeople aged over 35 years?

1.42 What can clinicians do to minimize the risk of sudden cardiac death?

5.14 Screening and periodic health examination

8.56 Efforts to increase the accuracy of ECG interpretation - the Seattle meeting

21.04 AMSSM - a great member society for primary care physicians

23.33 Summary

See also:

BJSM blog: ECG Summit in Seattle: Successes and Next Steps http://bit.ly/wCELeS

You can read how a two page tool with criteria for assisting interpreting ECGs in athletes led to improved accuracy in ECG reading by sports medicine attendings, primary care attending and primary care residents http://bit.ly/12EJwz4

Jon’s previous BJSM podcast: Preventing sudden cardiac death with Jon Drezner http://bit.ly/occXQj

The two page tool http://bit.ly/14LIF2Y

Recommendations for interpretation of 12-lead electrocardiogram in the athlete http://bit.ly/Y1iUbO

Detailed criteria for the interpretation of the electrocardiogram in young athletes http://bit.ly/ZJOMgi