Training Medical Residents in the Use of the Venous Excess UltraSound (VExUS) Score for Bedside Volume Assessment.

Condition(s) studied

Investigational drug(s) / intervention(s)

In-person VExUS Training Program: In-person training consisting of a 1-hour theoretical introduction followed by a 3-hour supervised hands-on ultrasound training session focusing on acquisition and interpretation of the VExUS score.

Remote VExUS Training Program: Remote training consisting of an e-learning module followed by independently performed ultrasound examinations with asynchronous expert feedback (via phone or email).

No intervention: SGUM-certified physicians performing VExUS examinations as expert reference standard.

Study summary

This randomized controlled trial evaluates the effectiveness of two training approaches (in-person versus remote) for teaching medical residents to apply the Venous Excess Ultrasound (VExUS) score for bedside volume assessment in patients with acute heart failure. Resident performance will be compared to that of expert physicians certified in abdominal and duplex sonography.

Eligibility

Primary outcome measure(s)

• Ultrasound Image Quality Score — From training until 6 months after completion of training
  The primary outcome will be a quality score, adapted from a quality score used in a previous randomized controlled trial which investigated a simulator-based training program for transoesophageal echocardiography.11 The quality score will include items commonly used for assessment of ultrasound quality: angle and depth, overall clarity, visualization of the anatomical structures, focus, doppler gain, scale and baseline resulting in a maximum achievable quality score of 100 points. If multiple images of the predefined views are captured, each image will be rated, and the best rating will be kept to calculate the final score. If a view is missing, 0 point will be awarded for that view. All ultrasound images will be independently assessed by experts for abdominal sonography and use Doppler sonography in their daily clinical practice and are blinded to the role (resident vs. SGUM-certified physician) and training (in-person vs. remote) program of the participants.

Trial sites (1)

More Insel Gruppe AG, University Hospital Bern trials in Switzerland