Objectives: Although simulator based training is increasingly used in medical training, there is paucity of studies proving its effectiveness. We have studied the effectiveness of our previously described and validated echocardiography simulator EchoCom.
Methods: The simulator consists of a life-sized neonatal manikin, an electromagnetic tracking system and a computer application. The application is linked with a data base of 3D echocardiographic data sets of congenital heart lesions. For the present study we have chosen nine pairs of data sets with the following diagnoses: VSD, ASD, AVSD, TOF, TGA, ccTGA, TAC, HLHS and normal heart. The first set was presented to 10 beginners in echocardiography without clinical information. Participants were asked to scan the data and come up with a presumed diagnosis. All participants underwent a structured simulator based echocardiography training session by an expert afterwards. After training the study was repeated using different data sets of identical lesions. Pre- and post-training results were compared to evaluate the effectiveness of simulator based training.
Results: Post-training results were significantly better than pre-training results. All participants improved the number of correct diagnoses.
Conclusion: Simulator based training improves beginner’s skills in echocardiography in congenital heart lesions. We have chosen data sets with identical lesions to have the same level of complexity. It is unclear if the result would be the same for previously unknown lesions. We have also not compared simulator based training with traditional learning like bed-side teaching or lectures. Bed-side teaching however is often impractical for hands-on training in critical lesions.