Clinical ScienceTransfer from point-of-care Ultrasonography training to diagnostic performance on patients-a randomized controlled trial

- Successful transfer from ultrasonographic training to diagnostic performance on patients.
- Clinicians can use point-of-care ultrasonography to increase diagnostic accuracy.
- Formalized courses should be an integrated part of the initial ultrasonographic training.
- Courses longer than 4 hours are needed when ultrasonography is introduced.

BackgroundClinicians are increasingly using point-of-care ultrasonography for bedside examinations of patients. However, proper training is needed in this technique, and it is unknown whether the skills learned from focused Ultrasonography courses are being transferred to diagnostic performance on patients.MethodsThirty-one physicians were randomized to participate in a focused Ultrasonography course or control circumstances before they examined 4 patients with different abdominal conditions by ultrasonography. Performance scores and diagnostic accuracy were compared using independent samples t test and binary logistic regression, respectively.ResultsThere was a significant difference in the performance score between the intervention group (27.4%) and the control group (18.0%, P = .004) and the diagnostic accuracy between the intervention group (65%) and the control group (39%, P = .014).ConclusionsClinicians could successfully transfer learning from an Ultrasonography course to improve diagnostic performance on patients. However, our results also indicate a need for more training when new technologies such as point-of-care ultrasonography are introduced.