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First-of-its-Kind Vascular Ultrasound Training and Education Center Opens
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The Vascular Ultrasound Core Laboratory, also known as VasCore, announced the opening of a first-of-its-kind clinical trial image training center in downtown Boston, adjacent to Massachusetts General Hospital.
The VasCore Training & Education Center, or VTEC, is a division of the Massachusetts General Physicians Organization. The center provides imaging examination rooms with the latest ultrasound image technology for basic and advanced training, which are connected to a classroom via a video communication system.
Michael R. Jaff
Michael R. Jaff, DO, FSCAI, founder and medical director of VasCore and VTEC, told Cardiology Today’s Intervention that members of VasCore had been traveling around the world training technologists working on multicenter clinical trials in vascular disease on how to get the most appropriate images. They found that “the most effective way that results in the highest yield of interpretable images that result in good data comes if we are actually watching them do the test after we’ve trained them on how to do it,” he said.
Because of that, “for many years, I’ve thought it would be great if VasCore had a place where we could bring the technologist to a central location [for training],” said Jaff, who is also the Paul and Phyllis Fireman Chair in Vascular Medicine and medical director of the vascular center at Massachusetts General Hospital.
VasCore obtained new space in close proximity to the Massachusetts General Hospital when it moved in October, and received a philanthropic gift from a grateful patient of Jaff’s to allow the center to open, he said.
In contrast to when training was done on the road at hotel conference rooms with whatever ultrasound technology was available, each training session at VasCore will be conducted with state-of-the-art equipment using real patients as volunteers, so training can “be very consistent and reliable,” Jaff said.
In addition, training sessions can be recorded and the recordings made available to the technologists to use for future reference, he said.
“We think this is something that will raise the level of the quality of imaging across the world,” Jaff said. “It’s very possible that this will gain such traction that there will be an appeal to expand the imaging modalities at VTEC,” including axial imaging, IVUS and angiography.
The center can also be used as a meeting space to discuss clinical trial design and strategy, he said. – by Erik Swain