Online Ultrasound Curriculum on Learning Outcomes of Post-graduate Physicians

April 24, 2025 updated by: National Taiwan University Hospital

The Impact of TMS Ultrasound Curriculum on Learning Outcomes of PGY Emergency Physicians: A Retrospective Study

This single-center retrospective study evaluates the effectiveness of the Training Management System (TMS) ultrasound curriculum on the learning outcomes of PGY emergency physicians. By analyzing test scores and course participation data from 2018 to 2025, the study investigates whether blended learning improves PoCUS proficiency and explores its potential role in enhancing ultrasound education for junior physicians.

Study Overview

Status

Not yet recruiting

Conditions

Detailed Description

Current point-of-care ultrasound education faces multiple challenges. Traditional teaching methods, such as didactic lectures and bedside one-on-one training, are constrained by time, clinical workload, and faculty availability, leading to inconsistent learning outcomes. Additionally, PGY physicians, due to their limited clinical experience, struggle to develop proficiency in ultrasound in a randomized learning environment. The quality of ultrasound image acquisition and diagnostic accuracy is also highly dependent on the operator's experience. In recent years, online learning platforms, such as the Training Management System, have been introduced to enhance learning flexibility. However, the long-term impact of such platforms on trainees' clinical application remains unclear. This study aims to evaluate the impact of the TMS ultrasound curriculum on the learning outcomes of PGY emergency physicians and explore the feasibility of a blended learning approach in improving ultrasound skill application. This single-center retrospective study analyzes test data from PGY trainees who participated in emergency PoCUS training between 2018 and 2025, including post-course test scores, objective structured clinical examination scores, and self-reported TMS course participation. The findings of this study may provide insights into the effectiveness of online and blended learning models in developing ultrasound proficiency among junior physicians and inform future medical education curriculum design.

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Estimated)

800

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Postgraduate Year (PGY) trainees are newly graduated medical doctors undergoing structured clinical training as part of their early postgraduate education. In Taiwan, the PGY program is designed to enhance foundational clinical competencies through rotations across various medical specialties, including emergency medicine.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  1. PGY trainees who participated in the Department of Emergency Medicine ultrasound training program during the study period.
  2. Trainees with complete course participation records and assessment results.

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Non-PGY participants (e.g., senior residents, attending physicians, medical students).
  2. Incomplete assessment data that prevents a full evaluation of learning outcomes.
  3. Any abnormal data not meeting study criteria (e.g., recording errors or duplicate entries).

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
PGY trained with TMS ultrasound curriculum
PGY physicians trained with the TMS ultrasound curriculum participated in a structured, blended learning program that combined online modules with hands-on clinical training. The Training Management System (TMS) provided flexible, self-paced learning opportunities to reinforce foundational knowledge, while in-person sessions focused on skill application and image acquisition.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Mean Post-Course Test Score
Time Frame: From enrollment to the end of the test at 8 weeks
Mean score of participants on the post-course knowledge test (range: 0-100 points; higher scores indicate better knowledge acquisition)
From enrollment to the end of the test at 8 weeks
Mean OSCE Rating Score
Time Frame: From enrollment to completion of OSCE at 8 weeks.

Mean score of participants on the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) assessing ultrasound performance. The OSCE includes structured evaluation of the following domains:

Image Acquisition Quality: Clarity and completeness of target anatomical structures (e.g., blood vessels, Morrison's pouch, spleno-renal recess, cul-de-sac).

Diagnostic Accuracy: Ability to correctly interpret ultrasound findings and reach an appropriate clinical diagnosis.

Scanning Technique and Efficiency: Smoothness, probe handling, and adherence to scanning protocols.

Each domain is rated on a 10-point Likert scale (1 = Poor, 10 = Excellent), with higher scores indicating better clinical performance. The overall OSCE score is calculated as the mean of these domain scores.
From enrollment to completion of OSCE at 8 weeks.

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

National Taiwan University Hospital

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Estimated)

June 1, 2025

Primary Completion (Estimated)

December 31, 2025

Study Completion (Estimated)

December 31, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

April 13, 2025

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 24, 2025

First Posted (Actual)

April 30, 2025

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

April 30, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 24, 2025

Last Verified

April 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 202503116RINB

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

UNDECIDED

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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