Teaching concepts of transesophageal echocardiography via Web-based modules.

OBJECTIVES

Teaching transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) remains challenging. The authors hypothesized that using online modules with live teaching in an echo training course would be feasible and result in superior knowledge acquisition to live teaching only.

DESIGN

In this prospective cohort study, the authors implemented a TEE course with online modules and live teaching and compared it to a live-teaching-only version.

SETTING

The online-and-live-teaching version of the course consisted of online modules and live sessions at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), an academic medical center. The live-teaching-only version consisted of live sessions at BIDMC.

PARTICIPANTS

Course participants included anesthesia trainees at BIDMC.

INTERVENTIONS

Trainees taking the online-and-live-teaching version viewed online modules before live review lectures and simulation. Trainees taking the live-teaching-only version viewed live lectures before simulation.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS

Twenty-seven trainees completed the online-and-live-teaching version; six completed the live-teaching-only version. Trainees took a course exam after the first and last live sessions. For the online-and-live-teaching version, average pretest and posttest scores were 62.0%±13.7% and 77.5%±8.1%, respectively; pretest and posttest passing (≥70%) rates were 29.6% and 85.2%, respectively. Compared to the live-teaching-only version, the average pretest score was not significantly different (p=0.17), but the average posttest score was significantly higher (p=0.01). Trainee comfort with, and knowledge of, TEE increased after both versions. Trainees rated the utility of the live lectures and online modules similarly.

CONCLUSIONS

A multimodal TEE curriculum increased trainees' knowledge of TEE concepts and had a positive reception from trainees.