Minireviews
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Nov 26, 2018; 6(14): 735-744
Published online Nov 26, 2018. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v6.i14.735
The assessment of endosonographers in training
Per Hedenström, Riadh Sadik
Per Hedenström, Riadh Sadik, Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Medicine, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg 41345, Sweden
Author contributions: Hedenström P designed the study, performed the literature search and review, and prepared and wrote the manuscript; Sadik R reviewed the manuscript with respect to the intellectual content and revised the preliminary draft.
Supported by The Health and Medical Care Committee of the Regional Executive Board, Region Västra Götaland, Nos. VGFOUREG-564381 and VGFOUREG-144591; Sahlgrenska University Hospital LUA-ALF, No. 73830; Magtarmfonden, No. A79211; and Assar Gabrielsson Foundation, No. FB 17-20.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Per Hedenström and Riadh Sadik declare no potential conflicts of interest relevant to this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Per Hedenström, MD, PhD, Doctor, Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Medicine, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Blå Stråket 3, Gothenburg 41345, Sweden. per.hedenstrom@vgregion.se
Telephone: +46-31-3428065 Fax: +46-31-827458
Received: August 24, 2018
Peer-review started: August 24, 2018
First decision: October 9, 2018
Revised: October 15, 2018
Accepted: October 31, 2018
Article in press: November 1, 2018
Published online: November 26, 2018
Processing time: 94 Days and 16.6 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Endosonography (EUS) has an estimated long learning curve including the acquisition of both technical and cognitive skills. However, the learning process and progress varies widely among trainees in EUS. Therefore, the performance of a certain number of EUS-procedures during training does not automatically guarantee adequate competence. Instead, assessment tools developed for the evaluation of endosonographers in training should better reflect the true competence of each individual trainee. This mini-review addresses the issue of clinical education in EUS and describes the current knowledge on how to assess the skills and competence of endosonographers in training in detail.