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Abstract
Background and Aims Recent years have seen an increase in remotely delivered teaching. Live ultrasound guided regional anaesthesia (UGRA) teaching is challenging due to the need for simultaneous demonstration of surface landmarks and annotation of dynamic ultrasound images.
We aimed to determine a cost-effective method to deliver such teaching and evaluate its effectiveness.
Methods Multiple technology solutions were considered to determine the optimum audio-visual set-up to deliver a live teaching session to a hybrid audience comprising of 15 online and 5 face-to-face (F2F) participants, with varied ultrasound experience.A volunteer was scanned by expert demonstrators, and the live images were annotated using touch-screen technology and presented remotely (Figure 1). Subject matter included ‘Plan A’ [1] and airway blocks, to cover a range of anatomical locations.
All participants completed a questionnaire to evaluate aspects of their learning experience on a scale of 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent).
Results Both groups reported the overall experience was excellent (mean online vs F2F scores were 4.6 vs 5.0 respectively), and that they were learning effectively (4.75 in both groups).
The clarity of ultrasound images (4.60 vs 4.75), on-screen annotation (4.40 vs 4.75), and appreciation of surface anatomy (4.30 vs 4.75, online vs F2F respectively) were comparable.
100% of participants were in favour of remote teaching – with free-text comments citing convenience, social distancing and the ability to record and playback.
Conclusions Remote UGRA teaching is popular, effective and can be easily delivered using low-cost equipment that is likely to be readily available in European anaesthetic departments.