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If you had to place your life in the hands of a doctor or nurse, which would you choose: a young practitioner schooled in the latest advances and technology or a seasoned veteran who has seen it all? Now, two programs are giving patients the best of both worlds by teaching "old" docs new tricks.

What music is playing in your ear? For some docs, the playlist may have nothing to do with rock and everything to do with "rhythm." They're listening to heartbeats on their iPods.

"Listening to the heart is still one of the basic skills of the art of medicine when we see patients," Alfred Bove, M.D., Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of Medicine at

Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia, told Ivanhoe.

On the Web site www.cardiosource.com, heart sounds for listening practice have been among the top downloads every month and not just by interns and residents.

"We’re finding many of the adult, older quote unquote cardiologists moving toward mp3 players as well," Dr. Bove explained.

On average, most doctors can correctly identify heart sounds 40 percent of the time. In a recent study, doctors who listened to five heart sounds at least 400 times on their iPods were 80 percent accurate.

Veteran nurse Margie Fortino is trying out another way to improve care. The E-lert system is like an electronic intensive care unit. Personnel monitor patients 24-7 with software. They also control high resolution cameras mounted in each room. Fortino can zoom in close enough to double check the fine print on medical devices.

"You can anticipate the needs of a patient, and you can pick up subtle changes a little earlier," Fortino, who is the operations manager for the Penn E-lert eICU, told Ivanhoe.

It's technology that could save lives and keep medical professionals on the job

without missing a beat.

The E-lert system tracks patients' vital signs, lab results and imaging info. In a previous study, using E-lert reduced mortality rates by 25-percent in one ICU. It also shortened the average length of stay by 17 days.