Impact Assessment of Perioperative Point-of-Care Ultrasound Training on Anesthesiology Residents

Background: The perioperative surgical home model highlights the need for trainees to include modalities that are focused on the entire perioperative experience. The focus of this study was to design, introduce, and evaluate the integration of a whole-body point-of-care (POC) ultrasound curriculum (Focused periOperative Risk Evaluation Sonography Involving Gastroabdominal Hemodynamic and Transthoracic ultrasound) into residency training. Methods: For 2 yr, anesthesiology residents (n = 42) received lectures using a model/simulation design and half were also randomly assigned to receive pathology assessment training. Posttraining performance was assessed through Kirkpatrick levels 1 to 4 outcomes based on the resident satisfaction surveys, multiple-choice tests, pathologic image evaluation, human model testing, and assessment of clinical impact via review of clinical examination data. Results: Evaluation of the curriculum demonstrated high satisfaction scores (n = 30), improved content test scores (n = 37) for all tested categories (48 ± 16 to 69 ± 17%, P < 0.002), and improvement on human model examinations. Residents randomized to receive pathology training (n = 18) also showed higher scores compared with those who did not (n = 19) (9.1 ± 2.5 vs. 17.4 ± 3.1, P < 0.05). Clinical examinations performed in the organization after the study (n = 224) showed that POC ultrasound affected clinical management at a rate of 76% and detected new pathology at a rate of 31%. Conclusions: Results suggest that a whole-body POC ultrasound curriculum can be effectively taught to anesthesiology residents and that this training may provide clinical benefit. These results should be evaluated within the context of the perioperative surgical home.