National Delphi Survey on Anesthesiology Resident Training in Perioperative Ultrasound.

Objective: To establish agreement among nationwide experts through a Delphi process on the key components of perioperative ultrasound and the recommended minimum number of examinations that should be performed by a resident upon graduation.
Design: A prospective cross-sectional study.
Setting: A survey on multiinstitutional academic medical centers.
Participants: Anesthesiology residency program directors and/or experts in perioperative ultrasound.
Interventions: A list of components and examinations recommended for anesthesiology resident training in perioperative ultrasound was developed based on guidelines and 2 survey rounds among a steering committee of 10 experts. A questionnaire asking for a rating of each component on a 5-point Likert scale subsequently was sent to an expert panel of 120 anesthesiology residency program directors across the United States. An agreement of at least 70% of participants, rating a component as 4 or 5, was compulsory to list a component as essential for anesthesiology resident training in perioperative ultrasound.
Measurements and Main Results: The nationwide survey's response rate was 62.5%, and agreement was reached after 2 Delphi rounds. The final list included 44 essential components for basic ultrasound physics and knobology, cardiac ultrasound, lung ultrasound, and ultrasound-guided vascular access. Agreement was not reached for abdominal ultrasound, gastric ultrasound, and ultrasound-guided airway assessment. Agreement for the recommended minimum number of examinations that should be performed by a resident upon graduation included 50 each for transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiography, and 20 each for lung ultrasound, ultrasound-guided central line, and ultrasound-guided arterial line placements.
Conclusions: The recommendations outlined in this survey can be used to establish standardized training for perioperative ultrasound by anesthesiology residency programs.
Competing Interests: Conflict of Interest John Mitchell was involved in the development of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Milestones 2.0 and the objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) for the American Board of Anesthesiology (ABA). Robina Matyal and Robert Isaak also were involved with the development of the OSCE for the ABA. All other authors report no conflict of interest.
(Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier Inc.)