Effectiveness of the "teaching the teachers" diagnostic US training program

The "Teaching the Teachers" training program was meant to establish standardized ultrasound education programs worldwide, reaching the largest possible number of physicians. The authors performed this study to evaluate the results of this training.

An open-ended test question format (ie, uncued testing) that would evoke responses from physicians in a manner ensuring the highest fidelity with a real clinical setting was selected. An examination was administered at the beginning and the end of the program and then again 6 months later to assess baseline knowledge, changes in knowledge, and knowledge retention, respectively.

Scores on entry and end-of-program examinations were available for 112 participants. The mean entry test score was 35%, and the mean end-of-program examination score was 73%. All changes in scores were statistically significant (P < .001) as determined with paired t tests. Follow-up examinations were available for 27 of the 112 participants at the time of the analysis. On these examinations, mean total test scores increased by nearly 4 percentage points. Although follow-up test scores were available for only 27 participants, these mean test scores were comparable to those reported for the entire group on the end-of-program examination.

The examinations administered at the end of the 3-month program showed marked improvement compared with the baseline assessment. That this improvement remained stable over 6 months indicates the success of the educational process.