About PDX PDX
This website was created by physicians who understand the power of physical diagnosis and believe it to be one of the most important aspects of bedside medicine.
Physical diagnosis can be defined as the use of physical examination to aid in the identification and characterization of medical conditions. It is a critical area of clinical medicine that requires conceptual understanding, visualization, mentorship, practice, and experience. Practice and experience are not effective without conceptual understanding, visualization, and mentorship.
Medical textbooks and print journals provide written descriptions of physical examination findings and the methods used to elicit them; in some cases, clinical images are used to provide visualization to learners, a critical component of the learning process.
Images of static physical findings, such as arachnodactyly of Marfan’s syndrome, can be delivered to learners via medical textbooks and print journals, and are instrumental in the process of learning physical diagnosis.
However, there are numerous dynamic physical findings that can only be visualized by learners via audio or video recordings. Such findings cannot be delivered to learners via medical textbooks or print journals. Computer-based media, including the internet, has introduced a means to provide learners with visualization of dynamic physical findings. Currently, learners can find examples of most physical findings scattered around the internet. For example, they may seek and find an audio recording of the murmur of mitral stenosis in one place, and a video recording of Kussmaul’s sign in another. To our knowledge, there is no centralized repository for physical findings, where learners can visit one website to find examples of virtually any physical finding of interest.
What is the most important part of a stethoscope ?
The part between the earpieces.
“Medicine is learned by the bedside and not in the classroom. Let not your conceptions of disease come from the words heard in the lecture room or read from the book. See and then reason and compare and control. But see first.”
Using This Website
Tutorial
Each discipline has a tutorial page that can be used to brush up on your knowledge. The tutorial pages are text-heavy and designed to teach the principles of physical diagnosis as well as describe variety of physical findings. Here you can read about the mechanism of Kussmaul’s sign or the physical findings of upper motor neuron disease. The signs you read about have associated multimedia pages where you can visualize authentic examples. Look for the camera icon to link to specific multimedia pages.
Multimedia
Each discipline has a multimedia page that features images, videos, and/or audio recordings of a variety of germane physical findings. The media are annotated in some cases to enhance learning. Videos with annotations and slower speed may be particularly helpful to the learner.
Test your knowledge
Check out the quiz section! We have a vast repository of questions from all disciplines. You can customize your quiz by selecting from a variety of options. Testing your knowledge is a highly effective way to learn physical diagnosis.
Voiceover Lecture
Voiceover presentations covering a range of physical diagnosis topics can be found under the “Lecture” tab in the main menu. These are designed to be complimentary to the written material in tutorial section, supplementing your learning experience. Don’t miss this one!
Submit Your Findings
We have an expansive library of physical findings that were recorded over the course of many years. However, there is always room for more findings. Please consider contributing to the site by sending us physical findings you have recorded using the “Submit your Findings” page. You can help expand our library and make a difference in the lives of students and patients across the globe.
Message forum
Here you can connect with others around the world to ask questions, discuss interesting physical findings, or explore other medical topics.
Special Thanks
The custom stethoscope you see featured on our site comes to us from Lx Stethoscopes, a small business in Oregon. The very best analog stethoscope we have ever used, it features a beautiful wooden bell for improved sound transmission. Gallops have never sounded better.
We have used a variety of digital stethoscopes over the years to capture diagnostic sounds, from the opening snap and diastolic rumble of mitral stenosis to pleural friction rubs. Many of the sounds on our site were recorded with the Thinklabs One digital stethoscope. Our latest recordings were captured with the Eko Core digital stethoscope, which maintains a high fidelity of sound transmission, producing truly outstanding recordings. Bluetooth technology allows for an easy recording experience. If you are interested in submitting audio recordings for publication on our site, consider using the Eko Core digital stethoscope.