Physical Examination Videos

Editor: V. Dimov, M.D.

Vocal vs. tactile fremitus? Percussion of the spleen? If you need to brush up your physical exam skills, the websites below can be very useful:

Physical Exam, Interviewing Modules and Videos by the University of Virginia

The website features streaming videos in QuickTime format.

Online Physical Exam Teaching Assistant by the University of Florida College of Medicine

You can watch the videos online or download them to your hard drive.

Physical Examination Video Series by Loyola University, Chicago

Hosted on LearnersTV.com.

UCLA Physical Exam Project

Standard physical exam videos plus tutorials on how to perform a pelvic exam, Pap smear and GC/Chlamydia cultures. The videos cannot be downloaded. Update 06/02/2007: This website is currently offline.

Connecticut Tutorials on Physical Examination by the UConn Health Center

Similar to the websites above.

Clinical Skills Online by the St. George's University of London

The videos can be downloaded to Palm or Windows Mobile (Pocket PC) devices.

There are more useful links for online medical education at the Clinical Skills Education Center of the Queen's University, Belfast. Our website ClinicalCases.org is also listed there.

The Neuro Exam

An interactive online guide to the neurological exam with video demonstrations.

Heart and Breath Sounds - Enhance Your Physical Exam Skills

The Heart Sounds Tutorial is a fancy Flash-based simulator with animations. The McGill University Virtual Stethoscope is another useful website. Click here for more web-based teaching resources for hearts sounds (1, 2) and breath sounds.

There are more examples on the website A Practical Guide to Clinical Medicine including a Catalog of Clinical Images.

Further reading

Physical Exam Web sites. Kindred Spirit, 2007.
Imagine: Physical Exam Can Save Lives. Dr. Wes, 08/2007.
Physical Exam: Treasure Chest. Musings of a Distractible Mind, 2008.
Online Medical Videos. Goomedic.com, 08/2008.
APDIM E-Learning Task Force: Cardiac Auscultation, Chest X-Rays, Electrocardiograms, Patient Images (Dermatology), Pulmonary Function Tests, 2009.

Published: 01/12/2005
Updated: 02/04/2010