Getting it right the first time: Defining regionally relevant training curricula and provider core competencies for point-of-care ultrasound education on the African continent.

2019-07-31 | Télécharger

BACKGROUND :

Many countries on the African continent have wellknown high burdens of trauma and unacceptably high all-cause mortality among emergency department (ED) patients (2.2% to 12.3%).
This occurs, in part, because of limited access to basic and advanced laboratory facilities, along with limited diagnostic imaging equipment availability, including radiographs and computerized tomography (CT). As a result, point-of-care ultrasound (PoCUS) has gained increasing recognition as an important tool for these clinical environs.
Despite this recognition, there remains limited use of PoCUS by local emergency medicine providers on the African continent. Reasons for this vary, but lack of portable ultrasound machines, poor access to reliable electrical power, limited consumable supplies (gel), and lack of adequate training with rigorous standards and credentialing are certainly primary constraints. Additionally, locally initiated educational programs often lack necessary resources and technical expertise, whereas externally (high-income countries) initiated programs often lack coordination between learners and teachers, longitudinal mentorship, and context appropriateness pertaining to local disease patterns. These limitations preclude program longevity and local sustainability.
Quality training programs in Africa’s emergency care settings hold immense potential to affect preventable morbidity and mortality, to improve diagnostic capability, and improve health equity. As leaders in emergency medicine from 8 African countries and local stakeholders, we initiate this dialogue to lay the groundwork for developing high-quality sustainable and collaborative emergency medicine PoCUS educational programs. Toward this end, we propose a novel PoCUS curriculum, developed by expert consensus, to establish core competencies grounded in functionality and contextualized to local epidemiology and resources. Furthermore, we propose a continent-wide coordinating structure to ensure

Margaret Salmon, Megan Landes, Cheryl Hunchak, Justin Paluku, Luc Malemo Kalisya, Christian Salmon, Mundenga Mutendi Muller, Benjamin Wachira, James Mangan, Kajal Chhaganlal, Joseph Kalanzi, Aklilu Azazh, Sara Berman, El-Sayed Zied, Hein Lamprecht. Getting it right the first time: Defining regionally relevant training curricula and provider core competencies for point-of-care ultrasound education on the African continent. Annals of Emergency Medicine 2017; 69 (2): 218 – 226.