P287 The knowledge and skills needed to perform intestinal ultrasound – An international Delphi consensus survey

Madsen , G.R.(1);Wilkens , R.(1);Boysen , T.(1);Burisch , J.(1);Bryant , R.(2);Carter , D.(3);Gecse , K.(4);Maaser , C.(5);Maconi , G.(6);Novak , K.(7);Palmela , C.(8);Nayahangan , L.J.(9);Tolsgaard , M.G.(9);

(1)Hvidovre Hospital - University of Copenhagen, Gastrounit, Hvidovre, Denmark;(2)The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Inflammatory Bowel Disease Service - Department of Gastroenterology, Adelaide, Australia;(3)Chaim Sheba Medical Center - Israel and Sackler Faculty of Medicine - Tel Aviv University, Department of Gastroenterology, Tel Aviv, Israel;(4)Academic Medical Center, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Amsterdam, The Netherlands;(5)Hospital Lüneburg, Outpatients Department of Gastroenterology, Lüneburg, Germany;(6)L.Sacco University Hospital, Gastrointestinal Unit - Department of Clinical Sciences, Milan, Italy;(7)University of Calgary, Department of Medicine - Division of Gastroenterology, Calgary, Canada;(8)Hospital Beatriz Ângelo, Division of Gastroenterology - Surgical Department, Loures, Portugal;(9)Copenhagen Academy for Medical Education and Simulation, Centre for HR and Education - The Capital Region of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark;

Background

Background

Intestinal Ultrasound (IUS) is a non-invasive modality for monitoring disease activity in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). IUS training currently lacks well-defined standards and international consensus on IUS competency criteria. Hence, the aim of this study was to achieve international consensus on what competencies should be expected from a newly certified IUS practitioner.

Methods

Methods

A three‐round iterative Delphi process was conducted among 54 IUS experts from across 17 countries. Round 1 was a brainstorming phase with an open-ended question to identify the knowledge and skills that the experts believed a newly certified IUS practitioner should have. The experts’ suggestions were summarised and organised into statements by a Steering Committee. Round 2 allowed the experts to provide comments and to rate the statements on a five-point Likert scale by level of agreement, i.e., how much they agreed or disagreed that a newly certified IUS practitioner should have a specific knowledge or skill. Statements were revised based on the comments and ratings from the experts. In round 3, the experts re-rated the revised statements. Statements achieving the pre-defined consensus-criterion (at least 70% agreement) were included in the final list of consensus statements.

Results

Results

858 items were suggested by the experts in first round. Based on the suggested items, 55 statements were summarised and organised into three categories; knowledge, technical skills and interpretation skills. After the second round, two statements were merged and one statement was excluded, leaving 53 revised statements. After the third and final Delphi round, a total of 41 statements were included in the final list of consensus statements.

Conclusion

Conclusion

We established an international consensus on the knowledge and skills that should be expected from a newly certified IUS practitioner. The inception of these consensus statements is the first step in the process of developing training standards. Educators can utilize these consensus statements to guide them in designing training programs and in evaluating the competencies of trainees before they engage in independent practice.