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Progress in lung ultrasound education: An updated systematic review

Background

Thoracic ultrasound (TUS) is integrated into clinical practice across various medical specialties to aid with diagnosis and procedural safety. Significant variability in training approaches and standards exists between nations and individual centres.

Aim and objectives

To review how differences in published TUS training methods impact upon learning.

Methods

A literature search following PRISMA guidelines was conducted in Medline, Embase, Cochrane Library and Scopus, from Jan 2017 until May 2025. Studies involving TUS education using pre- and post-assessments of learning were included.

Results

12,460 studies were screened, 235 full texts assessed, and 68 were included in the review. Studies were mainly observational cohorts targeting different healthcare professionals.

Ten randomized controlled trials, four non-randomized comparison and one switching replications evaluating different interventions were identified.

Physicians were the primary audience in 65% while 29% focused on other healthcare professionals. Class-based teaching was the most common educational tool (66%) sometimes combined with web-based (16%). 84% of studies involved practical training, with training on humans alone (in 63% of cases).

Most educational tools led to significant improvements in test scores, although assessment validity was rarely addressed.

Conclusions

Our review confirms various TUS educational methods are used in heterogenous participants.

While most interventions demonstrated positive learning effects, few studies addressed how this translates to safe clinical use.

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