Key result
Transesophageal echocardiography simulators offer a time-unrestricted, low-pressure environment to hone procedural skills for diagnostic and interventional TEE.
Why the study?
Demand for TEE is rapidly growing alongside transcatheter structural cardiac interventions, but clinical instruction prolongs procedures and increases complication risks, prompting the development of simulation programs.
TEE simulation is a potentially powerful educational tool for training novice operators in diagnostic and interventional echocardiography for structural heart interventions.
TEE simulators may aid structural heart TEE training; leaves open prospective validation before routine use.
Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) has experienced tremendous increase in interest and demand alongside the rapid growth of transcatheter structural cardiac interventions. TEE instruction prolongs the procedure, increasing the risk of probe malfunction from overheating and patient complications from prolonged sedation. Echocardiographic simulation programs have been developed to hone the procedural skills of novice operators in a time-unrestricted, low-pressure environment before they perform TEEs on real patients. Simulators likely benefit training in interventional TEE for the same reasons. We searched PubMed, basic Google, and Google Scholar for currently marketed TEE simulators, including foreign as well as US companies. We queried the vendors regarding features of the simulators that pertain to effective instructional design for diagnostic TEE. We also queried regarding the simulators' applicability to training in interventional TEE. The vendors' responses are reported here. In addition, we discuss the specific training needs for structural heart interventions, for which echocardiographic simulation could be a powerful educational tool. Lastly, we discuss the role of simulation for formative and summative assessment, and the advances required to improve training in complex procedures within the field of interventional echocardiography.
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Huang et al. (2021) conducted a review in Transesophageal echocardiography training. Transesophageal echocardiography simulators was evaluated. Transesophageal echocardiography simulators offer a time-unrestricted, low-pressure environment to hone procedural skills for diagnostic and interventional TEE.
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