Trainee Mentoring Award
Mentee: Sonia Voleti, MD
Mentor: Anita Krishnan, MD
Objectives:
- To assess a novel educational feature of handheld ultrasound in promoting widespread nonexpert RHS screening
- Measure RHD prevalence in Palau, Micronesia, a resource limited setting with high disease burden
Project Summary:
Echocardiographic screening is paramount to the accurate assessment of RHD prevalence, and holds promise for early diagnosis and prevention of disease progression in vulnerable populations. Handheld echocardiography has proven to be a valuable tool in widespread RHD screening, advantageous from both cost and portability perspectives. Due to limited resources and funding, the use of computer-based training of non-physicians in acquiring and interpreting echocardiographic images in an RHD screening setting has been successful in prior studies. Ploutz et al. assessed non-expert-led screening of Ugandan school children with handheld echocardiography, and demonstrated reasonable sensitivity and specificity for RHD identification by participating nurses. This study and others have suggested that task shifting in low resource settings may serve as an affordable, sustainable solution to RHD identification and treatment in low-resource environments.
