Ultrasound Training for Non-physicians

An ultrasound training program for non-physicians gives astronauts and sports trainers the tools to evaluate injuries using real-time remote assistance from medical specialists.

Researchers with the U.S. National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI; Houston, TX, USA) have devised a computer-based training method that teaches non-physicians to utilize ultrasound as if they were technicians. Crew members for four International Space Station (ISS) missions have trained with the program and have performed ultrasound scanning while in space.

In space, ultrasound can be used to evaluate a variety of injuries such as eye trauma, shoulder or knee injuries, tooth abscesses, fractured bones, a collapsed lung, hemorrhaging, or muscle and bone atrophy. It typically takes 200 hours and more per year of updates to learn to operate ultrasound; however, Dr. Dulchavsky and his team developed an education method that decreases the time to two-to-three hours per year.

"With remote guidance, we virtually couple a modestly trained operator with an experienced medical expert, essentially making the non-physician the hands of the expert,” said Dr. Dulchavsky, who is also chair of the department of surgery at Henry Ford Hospital (Detroit, MI, USA).

The program consists of a computer-based instructional presentation on the basics of ultrasound examination and models of remote guidance. Remote guidance is presented in experiment-specific sections, similar to visual case studies. After the computer-based instruction, trainees participate in a hands-on session where they perform musculoskeletal and abdominal ultrasound scans. A video stream from the ultrasound device is divided between the on-site monitor and the remote location.

After the preliminary training, ultrasound operators complete a one-hour refresher course developed by Dr. Dulchavsky's team, called the Onboard Proficiency Enhancement (OPE) program. The OPE employs multi-media instruction similar to the original computer-based training.

NSBRI, funded by the U.S. National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA), is a conglomerate of institutions assessing the health risks related to long-duration space flight. The Institute's research and education projects take place at more than 70 institutions across the United States.





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National Space Biomedical Research Institute