The utility of remote supervision with feedback as a method to deliver high-volume critical care ultrasound training

Despite international agreement that critical care ultrasound (CCUS) is an essential skill for intensive care providers, CCUS training and dissemination is complicated by a shortage of educators. Newer technology now permits remote, offline supervision as a method of overseeing trainees undergoing CCUS instruction.

This was a retrospective, descriptive report of a CCUS curriculum and its output of clinical ultrasound examinations at an academic critical care training program over a 1-year period. The curriculum consisted of typical didactic and hands-on training as well as wireless archiving of examinations with remote, offline oversight and feedback provided by the director using ultrasound management software.

A tertiary-care, academic critical care training program.

Twenty-nine trainees acquired and archived a total of 2531 CCUS studies (average 76 studies per trainee) for 1 year. Of these, 1807 (71%) examinations had a typewritten report generated by the operator, and 1788 of these examinations were overread and subjected to feedback from the curriculum director. The predominant application of CCUS was for cardiac (62%), thoracic (32%), and abdominal (5%) assessment.

This study suggests that the use of wireless archiving and offline oversight in a CCUS curriculum is a feasible and highly-efficient strategy permitting a small number of faculty to supervise a large number of trainees. This approach provides an efficient method to address unmet demand for CCUS education.