ECHOCARDIOGRAPHY AND ULTRASOUND TRAINING IN CRITICAL CARE

Abbas K. Ali, MD, RDCS. Angela Miller, MBA, SSBB, C-TAGME. Karen Korzick, MD. Robert Strony, DO, RDMS, RVI. H. Lester Kirchner, PhD ECHOCARDIOGRAPHY AND ULTRASOUND TRAINING IN CRITICAL CARE Abbas K. Ali, MD, RDCS. Angela... [ view full abstract ]

Abbas K. Ali, MD, RDCS. Angela Miller, MBA, SSBB, C-TAGME. Karen Korzick, MD. Robert Strony, DO, RDMS, RVI. H. Lester Kirchner, PhD


ECHOCARDIOGRAPHY AND ULTRASOUND TRAINING IN CRITICAL CARE
Abbas K. Ali, MD, RDCS. Angela Miller, MBA, SSBB, C-TAGME. Karen Korzick, MD. Robert Strony, DO, RDMS, RVI. H. Lester Kirchner, PhD

Introduction:
Critical care echocardiography and critical care ultrasound become part of standard care of the critically ill patients. We established a program of training echocardiography and ultrasound for practitioners and for critical care fellows
We established a two day course of echocardiography and critical care ultrasound at the beginning of the academic year with a total of 16 hours of combined didactic and hands on training on live models.
In this abstract we will report out on the pre and post test scores of the initial two day
course.
Objectives:
To train physicians and midlevels in practice to perform critical care echocardiography and ultrasonography.

Methods:
We conduct a two day, 16 hours, didactic and hands on course in our hospital every 6 months.
25 physicians and midlevel practitioners were enrolled during the last course held on July 8th and 9th 2015, 19 were physicians and 6 were midlevel practitioners.
The topics covered during the lectures were ultrasound physics and instrumentation, the echocardiography examination, LV function assessment, intravascular volume assessment, echocardiography approach in shock including RUSH protocol, vascular access, focused assessment by sonography in trauma (FAST), pulmonary and thoracic ultrasound and ultrasound guided lumbar puncture. A pre and post test was perfomed to evaluate the level of improvement among the attendees.
The test questions covered practical aspects like handling the probe and manipulating the machine for image acquisition and optimization.

Results:
A pre and post test was performed. All the candidates showed statistically significant improvement in scores (p < 0.0001) See graph.
The average pre-score was 9.35 with a standard deviation of 3.08. The average post-score was 17.74 with a standard deviation of 2.14. The average increase in the test score was 8.38 (SE=0.88). The increase in the test scores was significant (p<0.0001).




Conclusion:
A two day course is an effective tool to initiate training clinicians to perform bedside echocardiography and critical care ultrasound.
A certifying examination and credentialing criteria in the field of critical care echocardiography and ultrasound are needed