ECHO Made Easy

This one day course provides an introduction to echocardiography in the Emergency Department. This course is available every year. It is ideally suited for Emergency Medicine Physicians and Advanced Trainees who have some experience with ultrasound, but who are starting out with echo. It is also well suited to General Physicians and trainees, and other Doctors who are wanting to answer simple questions with echocardiography (Rural and Military Doctors for example).

Following an introduction to basic cardiac anatomy, and obtaining the correct "cardiac windows" the emphasis is on practical information, with plenty of time for hands on scanning in small groups, each with an experienced tutor. We have patient volunteers with real pathology.

This course aims to present practical information, and provide answers to simple questions that a point of care Physician echo-cardiographer may want to know. It is not designed to turn you into a fully qualified echo tech – rather to equip you with some skills to answer a few simple questions at the bedside.

This course is accredited with the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine.

Faculty

• Echocardiographers
• Cardiologists
• Experienced Emergency Physicians with formal qualifications in echo and ultrasound.

Click here to meet our faculty.

Educational Outcomes / content

• A comprehensive workbook.
• An introduction to obtaining the correct cardiac images with tips and tricks
• Practical talks and tuition aimed at answering the following questions
• Is there LV dysfunction?
• Is there Right heart strain in ? PE?
• Is there pericardial effusion or tamponade?
• Is there pulmonary oedema – and what is the volume status?
• Cardiac assessment in shock and cardiac arrest?
• Small group hands-on scanning - 4 hours
• Experience using a variety of ultrasound machines

Venue

This course is held at Ranui House, next to Christchurch Hospital. The course is fully catered including barista coffee in the morning, and drinks and nibbles at the conclusion of the course.