Benefits for the trainees

Ultrasonographer trainees need to develop a complex mix of cognitive skills and eye-hand movement coordination, to have the skills and experience to acquire appropriate images by manipulation of the ultrasound probe, and to recognise and interpret those images to make a diagnosis.

This training is time and resource intensive, requiring prolonged and repeated patient contact in the clinical setting, and at present is done, primarily through hands-on training with ultrasound machines and real patients, in a highly supervised environment.

As a result a trainee can only practise and learn when these training resources are available.

MedaPhor’s new ScanTrainer enables the trainee to train on their own, in a flexible, self learning environment in which all the necessary ‘hands on’ skills are learnt prior to patient contact.

The simple and intuitive tutorials, combined with the real feel of the haptic simulation probe, enable the trainer to build their confidence and knowledge and compare themselves against a Gold Standard, so they and their trainer can review their performance. The simulator dramatically speeds up skills acquisition as well as providing real life pathology experience as they progress to full competence.