Virtual Tele-Ultrasound in Pulmonary Ultrasound Peer-Education of Medical Students: A Preliminary Equivalence Study

TL;DR

This study shows that teaching pulmonary ultrasound via virtual tele-ultrasound is just as effective as in-person teaching for medical students.

Contribution

Demonstrates equivalence between virtual and in-person peer-instructed pulmonary ultrasound education for medical students.

Findings

Virtual and in-person groups showed equivalent knowledge improvement, OSCE scores, and confidence levels.

Tele-ultrasound teaching received high ratings but was not statistically equivalent to in-person experience scores.

Results suggest tele-ultrasound is a viable alternative for pulmonary ultrasound education.

Abstract

Peer-instructed tele-ultrasound has the potential to provide high-quality clinical ultrasound education to medical students. However, there is limited data evaluating the effectiveness of such methods in practice. The primary aim of this study is to evaluate how virtual tele-ultrasound teaching compares with traditional in-person teaching of peer-instructed pulmonary ultrasound in undergraduate medical students.

In a preliminary single-center study, first-year medical students (n = 39) were randomized into 2 peer-instructed pulmonary ultrasound teaching groups: a traditional in-person group or a virtual tele-ultrasound group. Effectiveness was evaluated by 3 primary outcomes: (1) change in knowledge score on pre- and posttest, (2) performance in an objective structured clinical exam, and (3) subjective confidence surveys. The secondary outcome was participants’ overall experience with the teaching method. Two one-sided t test was used to measure equivalence between the 2 groups (p < .05).

The virtual teaching group was statistically equivalent to the traditional in-person group in all primary outcomes of knowledge change (37.4 vs. 37.8 point improvement out of 100, p < .001), OSCE score (12.7 vs. 12.4 out of 15, p = .002), and overall confidence (4.2 vs. 4.1 out of 5, p = .02). The tele-ultrasound group rated their experience highly overall, but not statistically equivalent to the traditional group (4.5 vs. 4.9 out of 5, p = .47).

Peer-instructed tele-ultrasound may be an effective method of teaching pulmonary ultrasound to undergraduate medical students as compared with traditional in-person teaching.

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