title: The assessment of technical and interpretative proficiency in echocardiography.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We sought to assess the relationship between traditional measures of proficiency in echocardiography and an objective assessment of technical and interpretative skills.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Determination of competency in echocardiography is currently based on the number of months of training, echocardiograms scanned, and echocardiograms interpreted. It has not been established whether completion of these requirements is a surrogate for competency.
  
  
  METHODS
  In all, 22 cardiology fellows underwent an echocardiography objective structured clinical examination (OSCE).
  
  
  RESULTS
  There was a correlation between the number of echocardiograms scanned and the interpretation (r = 0.45, P = .038) and scanning (r = 0.42, P = .048) scores. There was a weak correlation between the number of echocardiograms interpreted and interpretation scores (r = 0.33); and number of months of training and the scanning (r = 0.39) and interpretation (r = 0.42) scores.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Technical and interpretative proficiency in echocardiography is not related to traditional measures. An objective assessment of acquisition and interpretation of echocardiographic data should be incorporated into the assessment of proficiency in echocardiography.
authors.affiliation: Gordon Yu Hoi Chiu and A. D. Barry McKelvey Echocardiographic Laboratories, The Toronto Western and Toronto General Hospitals, University Health Network, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Parvathy
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Nair
authors.forename: Samuel C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Siu
authors.forename: Cairrine E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Sloggett
authors.forename: Lizette
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Biclar
authors.forename: Ravindar S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Sidhu
authors.forename: Eric H C
authors.initials: EH
authors.lastname: Yu
mesh_terms: D002170:Canada; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004452:Echocardiography / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D015588:Observer Variation; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity