Training in perioperative echocardiography.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Echocardiography has been used perioperatively as an important diagnostic tool since the 1980s. Introduction of this new technique has been beneficial to our practice, but has also introduced questions and issues related to methods of teaching, requirements for demonstration of competence and testing and certification processes as evidence of satisfactory completion of necessary learning parameters. This article will review the issues presented to date, how they have been addressed, and what options could be arriving in the future.

RECENT FINDINGS: The introduction of Adult Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology fellowship accreditation by the American College of Graduate Medical Education provides a venue for completion of the guidelines for advanced echocardiographer status. The option of obtaining certification without formal training will remain for anyone who completes core residency training by 30 June, 2008. The written testing process is advancing to development of a recertification examination. There continue to be difficulties with learning and certification outside a training program. Recent evidence in the literature shows that formal cardiology training programs do not have the same correlation between experience and test success as past anesthesia data show. Like many other specialties, perioperative echocardiography provides time-limited certifications for 10 years from the time the examination is taken, meaning the original test group will recertify next year.

SUMMARY: Perioperative echocardiography has rapidly become an integral part of anesthetic practice. The training and certification process has been formalized. There are still issues related to difficulty of training individuals outside core residency programs.