Echocardiography accrediation for intensivists: The European Diploma in Echocardiography (EDEC)

Overview

Echocardiography at its basic level has become a compulsory component of the educational curriculum in intensive care and an ultrasound device should become standard equipment in the intensive care unit. The issue of quality and standardization of education in echocardiography is addressed by available accreditations, which should provide a growing number of supervisors for the basic level, and stimulate the spread of echocardiographic applications and research in the field of non-invasive haemodynamics. Since 2016, an opportunity exists in the EU to gain the accreditation in critical care echocardiography in the form of the European Diploma in Echocardiography (EDEC), which is unique in combining transthoracic (TTE) and transesophageal (TEE) echocardiography. To obtain the accreditation, the Czech intensivist is expected to register with his/her supervisor at the EDEC Board. A supervisor might be someone in possession of a renowned accreditation or a board certified cardiologist. The accreditation is granted after 40 hours of certified courses, completion and logging of 100 TTEs plus 35 TEEs into a structured logbook, passing of the MCQ test, a video case-reporting test and a practical TEE exam on an electronic trainer (http://www.esicm.org/education/edec).

Keywords:
echocardiography – ultrasonography – chest ultrasonography – intensive care – accreditation in echocardiography