[Tele-echocardiography. Education in echocardiography via video conferences]

This paper evaluates instruction via video conferences in the training of a physician previously inexperienced in echocardiography, and the diagnostic precision of this method. An inexperienced doctor performed the investigations in 38 patients at a local hospital and the ultrasound signals were transferred to a referral hospital 900 km away where a cardiologist served as instructor. The instructor was blinded to all patient identifications and later examined the patients directly. M-mode, two dimensional echo and Doppler data were assessed. There was a difference of possible clinical importance in only two patients in the two-dimensional assessment, and in one patient in the quantification of mitral regurgitation. For the M-mode measurements, the differences observed were comparable to the results of other investigators, for the Doppler measurements they were slightly larger. Except for a left ventricular aneurysm in one patient, no diagnoses of clinical importance were missed. Our experience is that teleechocardiography is a method that is suitable for basic training in echocardiography, and that the diagnostic precision is sufficient for the method to be applied clinically.