Validation of the performance of “fast lung ultrasound teaching program” for gynecologists/obstetricians dealing with pregnant women with suspicion of covid-19 infection: An italian prospective multicenter study

Abstract

Objective. The goal of this study was to validate a “fast lung ultrasound teaching program” in a large number of Italian gynaecologists/obstetricians skilled on ultrasound, by comparing the number of correct answers in pre and post-train-ing tests. Methods. This is a prospective, multicenter study. Gynaecologic consultants, who are member of two Italian Societies – SIGO and SIEOG, with at least 5 years of experience in ul-trasound, were invited to participate. The fast lung teaching program was available online and consisted of three phases: 1) a pre-test with 10 ultrasound video-clips, 2) a 40 minutes theoretical course, 3) a post-test with the administration of the same 10 ultrasound video-clips, showed in a different order. The results of the pre-test were compared with those of post-test analysis. Results. 108 gynaecologists/obstetricians completed the pro-gram. Considering pre-test results, the median number of correct answers was 7 (range 2-10). In particular, 55 of them (50.9%) had a number of correct answers equal or less than 7/10 (“inadequate pre-test group”), whereas 53/108 (49.1%) had a number of correct answers equal or more than 8/10. Considering post-test analysis of all trainees, the median number of correct answers was 9 (range 6-10), with a mean dif-ference between pre-test and post-test equal to 1.9 points and a median difference of 2 points. When considering only the “inadequate pre-test group”, the median number of correct responses at pre-test analysis was 6 (range 2-7), and at post-test analysis was 9 (range 6-10). Conclusions. The “fast lung ultrasound teaching program” was able to offer basic theoretical principles of lung ultrasound to gynaecologists/obstetricians. The consultants with inadequate pre-test results were also able to obtain a satisfac-tory result after the program.