Geisinger Medical Center
Danville, PA
Program Director: Karen Korzick, MD
Type of Program: Critical Care Medicine
Abstract Authors: Alex Bastidas, MD; Abbas Ali, MD; Karen Korzick, MD
Point of care echocardiography has become an invaluable tool in the assessment and management of critically ill patients. Development of national standards for competency in point of care Critical Care Echocardiography is in process; but, at present, a clear consensus on standards for competency and on best practice in educational methods does not exist.
We have developed a program for point Critical Care echocardiography competency and CCM Fellowship education, based on a current read of the literature on the topic. Our curriculum currently consists of:
1) A two day intensive echo and ultrasound symposium conducted in July of each Fellowship year. Data from the symposium conducted in July, 2013, reveals significant improvement in the knowledge of ultrasound physics, image acquisition, and clinical applications among attendees.
2) Completion of a comprehensive on-line echo and ultrasound course during year one of the fellowship.
3) A programmed, six month dedicated curriculum in Critical Care point of care Echocardiography during the two year Fellowship:
a. Month one: working in Echocardiography lab with Echo techs to learn details of image acquisition and “knobology.” This further strengthens knowledge and skills obtained during the two day symposium.
b. Month two and three: Critical Care Echocardiography. Fellow is assigned to rotation full time for four weeks, and is responsible for conducting Echocardiograms on all Critical Care Service patients for whom a formal Cardiology Echo is ordered.
c. Month four, five and six: imbedded within the 9 months of ICU rotations during the CCM Fellowship. Fellows are to conduct bedside Echo and ultrasound studies, store them, interpret them, and submit them for expert over-reading.
4) A standardized process for conducting point of care critical care echocardiography has been established, including standards for which Echo images are to be acquired, items to be addressed on interpretation of the Echo study, storage of each study, and expert over-reading of each study.
5) A monthly lecture series on Echocardiography, conducted the fourth Tuesday of each month.
Our goal is that by the completion of our two year CCM Fellowship, point of care echocardiography competency at Level 2 as per ASE recommendations is achieved with a total of 150 studies acquired, 300 studies interpreted with 90% concordance between Fellow interpretation and Expert interpretation.
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