Evaluating Independent Echocardiography Interpretation Skills: A Novel Assessment Tool.

Echocardiography is an essential imaging modality for clinical care. Currently, by virtue of graduating from car-diology residency and performing/interpreting an arbi-trary number of echocardiograms, cardiology trainees are deemed competent to independently practice echocardi-ography. There is no formal assessment to ensure their competence. Recognizing this unmet need, we developed a novel echocardiography assessment tool and piloted it in a sample of 38 participants (including 7 expert echocardi-ographers). The tool was shown to be valid and reliable in assessing independent echocardiography interpretation skills; thus it can be used during training to ensure car-diology residents achieve competence in echocardiography before completing their training.