Musculoskeletal ultrasound training now offered in nearly all U.S. rheumatology fellowships

Musculoskeletal ultrasound (MSUS) fellowship opportunities are growing among rheumatology programs across the country as professionals push for more standardized education, according to a survey of fellowship program directors.

Rise in use of MSUS among rheumatologists is spurring more comprehensive education for providers to acquire these skill sets, which researchers have gathered will only become more prevalent.

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The investigators sent two surveys to 113 rheumatology fellowship program directors. In the first survey, responses from the directors of 108 programs indicated that 101 (94%) offered MSUS programs (Arthritis Care Res. 2017 Aug 4. doi: 10.1002/acr.23336).

While this number has increased dramatically since a 2013 survey showed that 60% offered MSUS programs, the new survey found that 66% of respondents would prefer for the program to be optional, as opposed to a formal part of the fellowship program.

This sentiment for nonformal education programs was mirrored in the second survey specifically targeting the 101 programs that were known to provide some sort of MSUS education.

Among the 74 program directors who responded, 30 (41%) reported having a formal curriculum, while 44 (59%) did not, citing a major barrier being a lack of interested fellows to learn the material (P = .012)

Another major barrier, according to Dr. Torralba and her colleagues, is access to faculty with enough teaching experience to properly teach MSUS skills, with 62 (84%) reporting having no or only one faculty member with MSUS certification (P = .049).

Programs without proper faculty available and even those with available faculty are choosing to outsource lessons to expensive teaching programs such as the Ultrasound School of North American Rheumatologists (USSONAR) fellowship course, according to Dr. Torralba and her associates.

“While cost of external courses can be prohibitive, (expenses for a 2- to 4-day course costs between $1,500 and $4,000), programs may augment MSUS teaching using these courses for several reasons,” according to Dr. Torralba and her colleagues. [These include] insufficient number of teaching faculty, limited time or support for faculty to deliver all educational content, inadequate confidence or competency for faculty to teach content, and utilization of external materials to bolster resources.”

While these barriers will still need addressing, according to Dr. Torralba and her colleagues, half of responders noted previous barriers such as political pushback and lack of fellow interest are starting to recede, giving more room for programs to start developing MSUS programs that researchers assert are necessary for future developing rheumatologists.

“A standardized MSUS curriculum developed and endorsed by program directors and MSUS lead educators is now reasonably within sights,” the investigators wrote. “We need to work together to proactively champion MSUS education for both faculty and fellows who desire to attain this skill set.”

This study was limited by the self-reporting nature of the survey sent, as well as the small population of the sample. Researchers were also forced to rely on program directors’ perception of how effective their MSUS programs were instead of asking those participating in the programs directly.

The researchers reported no relevant financial disclosures.

ezimmerman@frontlinemedcom.com

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