title: Student tutors are able to teach basic sonographic anatomy effectively - a prospective randomized controlled trial.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Ultrasound is a widely used diagnostic tool. In medical education, it can be used to teach sonographic anatomy as well as the basics of ultrasound diagnostics. Some medical schools have begun implementing student tutor-led teaching sessions in sonographic abdominal anatomy in order to meet the growing demand in ultrasound teaching. However, while this teaching concept has proven to be feasible and well accepted, there is limited data regarding its effectiveness. We investigated whether student tutors teach sonographic anatomy as effectively as faculty staff sonographers.
  
  
  METHODS
  50 medical students were randomly assigned to one of two groups. 46 of these could be included in the analysis. One group was taught by student tutors (ST) and the other by a faculty staff sonographer (FS). Using a pre/post-test design, students were required to locate and label 15 different abdominal structures. They printed out three pictures in three minutes and subsequently labeled the structures they were able to identify. The pictures were then rated by two blinded faculty staff sonographers. A mean difference of one point in the improvement of correctly identified abdominal structures between the pre-test and post-test among the two groups was regarded as equivalent.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In the pre-test, the ST (FS) correctly identified 1.6 ± 1.0 (2.0 ± 1.1) structures. Both the ST and FS group showed improvement in the post-test, correctly identifying 7.8 ± 2.8 vs. 8.9 ± 2.9 structures, respectively (p < .0001 each). Comparing the improvement of the ST (6.2 ± 2.8 structures) versus the FS (6.9 ± 3.2) showed equivalent results between the two groups (p < .05 testing for equivalence).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Basic abdominal sonographic anatomy can be taught effectively by student tutors.
authors.affiliation: University of Tuebingen, Department Internal Medicine IV. Nora.Celebi@med.uni-tuebin-gen.de
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Celebi
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zwirner
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Lischner
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bauder
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ditthard
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schürger
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Riessen
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Engel
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Balletshofer
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Weyrich
mesh_terms: D000005:Abdomen / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D000328:Adult; D019412:Anatomy, Cross-Sectional / Q000193:education*; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D019985:Benchmarking; D002983:Clinical Competence; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate; D005180:Faculty, Medical; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008611:Mentors; D010379:Peer Group; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013337:Students, Medical; D014463:Ultrasonography