This concurrent curriculum is designed to provide a comprehensive understanding of critical care ultrasound and echocardiography. Fellows will actively participate in critical care echocardiography as well as transesophageal echocardiography during their one-year fellowship and have a dedicated four week rotation in ultrasound and echocardiography. The training will be done with board-certified echocardiographers with extensive simulation and in-person training. Training will allow fellows to be able to independently interpret critical care transthoracic ultrasound as well as transesophageal echocardiography.
This portion of the fellowship will culminate in the creation of a portfolio for submission to the National Board of Echocardiography and fellows will be prepared to sit for the CCEeXAM. Fellows will have access to a personal Butterfly ultrasound to keep with them for use during fellowship, access to portable Kronos ultrasounds which can be used for image acquisition and future analysis, M-Turbo ultrasounds, Sinusite X-port ultrasounds, Sonosite SII, as well as other ultrasound machines and transesophageal probes and machines.
Fellows will have access to train these skills between our clinical sites at Eskenazi Hospital, Methodist Hospital and University Hospital. In addition, IU School of Medicine's simulation center will be open to fellows for additional simulated training on advanced echocardiography techniques.
The curriculum is designed to ensure fellow competency in complete critical care transthoracic echocardiography and interpretation of images. Fellows will then be able to at a minimum interpret the following information from their scans:
- Venous thromboembolism
- Volume status measures: VExUS, variation of IVC, Cardiac Velocity Time Integral (VTI)
- Pulmonary effusions, pulmonary edema, hemoperitoneum
- E-FAST
- Lung examination for: Pericardial effusion, pericardial tamponade, pneumothorax, A-pattern, B-profile, consolidation,
- Right ventricular dilation and dysfunction with estimations of right heart pressures and TAPSE
- Left ventricular dysfunction: EF, MAPSE, E-point septal separation
- Other clinically relevant ultrasonography in critical care