Variable exposure to echocardiography core competencies when applying minimum recommended procedural numbers for cardiology fellows in training

Background The American College of Cardiology Core Cardiovascular Training Statement (COCATS) defined echocardiography core competencies and set the minimum recommend number of echocardiograms to perform (150) and interpret (300) for independent practice in echocardiography (level 2 training). Fellows may lack exposure to key pathologies that are relatively infrequent, however, even when achieving an adequate number of studies performed and interpreted. We hypothesized that cardiology fellows would lack exposure to 1 or more cardiac pathologies related to core competencies in COCATS when performing and interpreting the minimum recommend number of studies for level 2 training. Methods We retrospectively reviewed 11,250 reports from consecutive echocardiograms interpreted (7,500) and performed (3,750) by 25 cardiology fellows at a University tertiary referral hospital who graduated between 2015 and 2019. The first 300 echocardiograms interpreted and the first 150 echocardiograms performed by each fellow were included in the analysis. Echocardiography reports were reviewed for cardiac pathologies relating to core competencies defined in COCATS. Results All 25 fellows lacked exposure to 1 or more cardiac pathologies related to echocardiography core competencies despite meeting COCATS minimum recommended numbers for echocardiograms performed and interpreted. Pathologies for which 1 or more fellows encountered 0 cases despite meeting the minimum recommended numbers for both echocardiograms performed and interpreted included: pericardial constriction (16/25 fellows), aortic dissection (15/25 fellows), pericardial tamponade (4/25 fellows), valvular mass/thrombus (2/25 fellows), prosthetic valve dysfunction (1/25 fellows), and cardiac chamber mass/thrombus (1/25 fellows). Conclusions Cardiology fellows who completed the minimum recommend number of echocardiograms performed and interpreted for COCATS level 2 training frequently lacked exposure to cardiac pathologies, even in a University tertiary referral hospital setting. These data suggest that fellowship programs should monitor pathology case counts for each fellow in training, in addition to the minimum recommend number of echocardiograms defined by COCATS, to ensure competency for independent practice in echocardiography.