The Development and Evaluation of the Efficacy for Echo-assisted Advanced Life Support Advanced Life Support (eALS)

Advanced life support (ALS) is an important training course for junior physicians to learn how to manage critical patients. Ultrasound is an indispensable and easily accessible tool in emergency departments and critical care settings. Current guidelines suggested that ultrasound could be an integral part of resuscitative medicine. However, structured training is needed for better efficacy of ultrasound use during clinical use. The aim of this project is to incorporate ultrasound into the ALS course, including common critical diseases, such as dyspnea, shock, major trauma and cardiac arrests. Junior physicians at the National Taiwan University Hospital will be enrolled in this study as participants. Through lectures and hand-on practice, the junior physicians could be familiar with managing critical patients with ultrasound assistance. This study will be lasted for two years. In the 1st year, the investigators will establish the echo-assisted ALS (eALS) training course, set up assessment modules and simulation scenarios. In the 2nd year, the investigators will provide the formal eALS training course for 4 to 6 times, analyze the data and establish on-line learning modules. In addition, the investigators will promote the eALS course to other hospitals and other countries.

This pioneer study can provide experience of eALS training course and contribute to current medical education. Moreover, it can improve decision-making process and quality of care of the participants. Furthermore, the integrated on-line learning programs can be used to lessen the maturation time of the participants and would provide them to other departments and hospitals to improve patients' care.