Learning Pediatric Point-of-Care Ultrasound: How Many Cases Does Mastery of Image Interpretation Take?

Using an education and assessment tool, we examined the number of cases necessary to achieve a performance benchmark in image interpretation of pediatric soft tissue, cardiac, lung, and focused assessment with sonography for trauma (FAST) point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) applications. We also determined interpretation difficulty scores to derive which cases provided the greatest diagnostic challenges.

Pediatric emergency physicians participated in web-based pediatric POCUS courses sponsored by their institution as a credentialing priority. Participants deliberately practiced cases until they achieved diagnostic interpretation scores of combined 90% accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity.

Of the 463 who enrolled, 379 (81.9%) completed cases. The median (interquartile range) number of cases required to achieve the performance benchmark for soft tissue was 94 (68-128); cardiac, 128 (86-201); lung, 87 (25-118); and FAST, 93 (68-133) (P < 0001). Specifically, cases completed to achieve benchmark were higher for cardiac relative to other applications (P < 0.0001 for all comparisons). In soft tissue cases, a foreign body was more difficult to diagnose than cobblestoning and hypoechoic collections (P = 0.036). Poor cardiac function and abnormal ventricles were more difficult to interpret with accuracy than normal (P < 0.0001) or pericardial effusion cases (P = 0.01). The absence of lung sliding was significantly more difficult to interpret than normal lung cases (P = 0.028). The interpretation difficulty of various FAST imaging findings was not significantly different.

There was a significant variation in number of cases required to reach a performance benchmark. We also identified the specific applications and imaging findings that demonstrated the greatest diagnostic challenges. These data may inform future credentialing guidelines and POCUS learning interventions.