Effectiveness of the "Teaching the Teachers" diagnostic US training program

Rationale and Objectives. The "Teaching the Teachers" training program was meant to establish standardized ultrasound education programs worldwide, re aching the largest possible number of physicians. The authors performed thi s study to evaluate the results of this training. Materials and Methods. An open-ended test question format (ie, uncued testi ng) that would evoke responses from physicians in a manner ensuring the hig hest fidelity with a real clinical setting was selected. An examination was administered at the beginning and the end of the program and then again 6 months later to assess baseline knowledge, changes in knowledge, and knowle dge retention, respectively. Results. Scores on entry and end-of-program examinations were available for 112 participants. The mean entry test score was 35%, and the mean end-of-p rogram examination score was 73%. All changes in scores were statistically significant (P < .001) as determined with paired t tests. Follow-up examina tions were available for 27 of the 112 participants at the time of the anal ysis. On these examinations, mean total test scores increased by nearly 4 p ercentage points. Although follow-up test scores were available for only 27 participants, these mean test scores were comparable to those reported for the entire group on the end-of-program examination. Conclusion. The examinations administered at the end of the 3-month program showed marked improvement compared with the baseline assessment. That this improvement remained stable over 6 months indicates the success of the edu cational process.