Essential training steps to achieving competency in the basic intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography examination for Chinese anesthesiologists

Abstract

Guidelines for the intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) examination have defined a detailed standard for medical professionals, particularly anesthesiologists, on how a TEE exam should proceed. Over the years, TEE has gained substantial popularity and emerged as a preferred monitoring modality to aid in perioperative management and decision making during hemodynamic instability situations or critical care settings. TEE training pathways and practice guidelines have been well established in western countries and many regions of the world. However, TEE training and practice information for anesthesiologists are lacking in China. As innovative technologies develop, other educational models have emerged to aid in obtaining competency in basic TEE exam. Hence, establishing a consensus on the ideal TEE training approach for anesthesiologists in China is urgently needed. Developing an effective curriculum that can be incorporated into an anesthesiology resident’s overall training is also necessary to provide knowledge and skills toward competency in basic TEE exam. With evolving medical system reforms and increasing demands for intraoperative hemodynamic monitoring to accommodate surgical innovations, anesthesiology professionals are increasingly obliged to perform intraoperative TEE exams in their current and future practices. To overcome obstacles and achieve significant progress in using the TEE modality to help in intraoperative management and surgical decision making, publishing basic TEE training guidelines for China’s anesthesiologists is an important endeavor.

Keywords

transesophageal echocardiography / guidelines / training / competency

References

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by funding from the Department of Anesthesiology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, and the University of Florida.

Compliance with ethics guidelines

Yong G. Peng, Haibo Song, E. Wang, Weipeng Wang, and Jin Liu declare no conflicts of interest in this work. This manuscript does not involve any research protocol requiring approval by relevant institutional review boards or ethics committees.

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg