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Countering the impact of covid-19 on fellow transesophageal echocardiogram education in a tertiary academic program
Circulation ; 144(SUPPL 1), 2021.
Article in English | EMBASE | ID: covidwho-1631983
ABSTRACT

Introduction:

TEE's are an essential component of cardiology fellowship education. At our institution, COVID peaked twice in 2020. The first peak showed a drop in total fellow TEE's. To counter this decline, the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) and COVID testing patients requiring TEE's were implemented to maintain patient care and ensure the safety of health personnel. We analyzed the differences in fellow TEE's during the second COVID wave compared to the first to determine if these interventions prevented a decline in fellow TEE's.

Methods:

The monthly number of TEE's performed by fellows on core TEE rotations was plotted for the year 2019, prior to the COVID pandemic. For the data set, a linear line was fit to account for the variation of studies read over the year. This linear variation was subtracted from the monthly totals to remove seasonal variation. The degree of variation was taken as the standard deviation (SD) for 2019. The 2020 data was processed using the predictions for 2019 and the upper and lower limits of variation were taken as three times the SD of the 2019 data.

Results:

Using the 2019 TEE data (Figure 1A), the linear seasonal variation line was created and used to account for variations in the 2020 TEE data (Figure 1B). After accounting for seasonal variation, a significant decline is noted, indicated by the red dot, in the number of fellow TEE'sduring the month of April, the first peak (Figure 1C). Institutional guidelines for PPE and COVID testing were put in place in June 2020 and December 2020. After implementation, fellow TEE numbers improve back to baseline and remain consistent even through the December peak (Figure 1C).

Conclusions:

Our data demonstrates the value of PPE and COVID testing prior to TEE's can help maintain fellow education during a pandemic while ensuring the safety of fellows, faculty, and technicians. COVID brings uncertainty to the healthcare field and these systems will allow for maintenance of both fellow education and patient care.
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Full text: Available Collection: Databases of international organizations Database: EMBASE Type of study: Experimental Studies Language: English Journal: Circulation Year: 2021 Document Type: Article

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Full text: Available Collection: Databases of international organizations Database: EMBASE Type of study: Experimental Studies Language: English Journal: Circulation Year: 2021 Document Type: Article