Listening to and interpreting the human heartbeat with a stethoscope is one of the most challenging and critical tasks performed by physicians. An Indianapolis cardiologist has created a new instructional method to make learning this skill easier for medical students. By utilizing high fidelity recording equipment and computer software used by the music industry, Dr. Morton Tavel has revolutionized the art of listening to the human heart.

It requires great expertise to differentiate between normal and abnormal heart sounds. Visual clues aid in this, allowing students to see the shapes of sounds. It is most useful to hear and see a patient's heartbeats simultaneously, especially for new students. However, once a student has both seen and heard heart sounds together, he or she no longer must rely on visual support.

To collect heartbeats, Dr. Tavel uses a stethoscope with high-fidelity recording capabilities. Sounds are gathered in electronic format, and are then entered into a computer and converted into a visual format. A student in a three-hour session will probably run through sixty different heart sounds. An electronic stethoscope permits selective amplification, and more people are able to listen at once. Students learning through the visual technique have found it very productive and less daunting than conventional instructional methods.