Adult Transesophageal Echocardiography (TEE)

Aims | Requirements | Process | Documents to submit | Get ready | EAE/EACTA joint initiative

Aims

What would you benefit from getting the EAE Certification in TEE?

• The goals of certification are to protect patients from undergoing transesophageal echocardiographic examinations performed by unqualified persons and to set a European standard for competency and excellence in this field.
   
• Certification in TEE should bring credibility and professional legitimacy to an individual by demonstrating his/her competency getting this certification. 
   
• The certification process will identify qualified practioners of transesophageal echocardiography and should enhance their professional image.
   
• European Certification is designed to test the competency of an individual to be able to perform, interpret, and report routine transesophageal echocardiographic studies unsupervised.
   
• Certification in TEE is not a compulsory or regulatory certificate of competence or excellence. Individuals' rights to report and sign clinical studies in individual countries remain to be defined by National laws and regulations.
   
• Sonographers (technicians) and doctors of all disciplines can apply for certification in TEE.

Registration

Exam sessions:

December 2011 during EUROECHO & other Imaging Modalities Congress (7-10 December 2011 - Budapest, HU)

 
Candidates must present the "Supervisor Enrolment and Statement of Supervisor Form" the day of the exam to the registration desk.
Download the enrolment form  Enrolment form must be stapled

• NEW! Candidates looking for a supervisor can refer to the list of successful candidates

• • Certification Fees (in Euros)

	Early Fees	Onsite Fees
Standard	€200	€250
EAE/EACTA* Members	€170	€200
Resit	€100	€150

* EACTA members: please contact ESCcertification@escardio.org to proceed to registration

Cancellation policy:
In the event that a participant wishes to cancel their registration to the Certification examination, a written confirmation to ESCertification@escardio.org is required, up to 2 weeks prior the exam. A refund of fees will be made. After this deadline, the candidate will be charged with a penalty of 50% of the certification fee and be refunded of the difference. In case of unforeseen circumstances (such as death in the family, on-call at the hospital, accident of the candidate...), a proof document will be required and the candidate will be refunded with the entire registration fee.

For any information, please contact us here

Requirements

The certification process includes two parts:

1. Theoretical part: written exam. Candidates will have to pass this first section successfully before going to the second part.
2. Practical part: log book section. Candidates must submit a logbook of 125 clinical cases (or 75 if s/he holds certification in TEE) performed by him/her.

To obtain certification, candidates must pass both the written and the practical parts of the assessment.

Re-certification:
As echocardiography skills can only be maintained by continued education and practical involvement, certification will be granted for a period of five years. After this time, to maintain certification, candidates will have to start a re-certification process demonstrating their continued practice and learning in this field.
Details re-certification are listed here.

Process

The TEE Certification process is run in two parts:

 STEP 1: A written examination held twice a year: in June during the EACTA meeting, and in December during the EUROECHO & other Imaging Modalities Congress.

Important information
- This examination is a Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ, single best answer out of 5 possible choices) divided into two sections:

• Reporting (50 questions related to TEE cases on screen displayed echoes - around 110 minutes)
• Theory (100 questions - 145 minutes).

- The examination is in English, a glossary is provided.
- The duration of the written examination is 4 hours 45 minutes including a 30 minutes break.
- To be successful, a candidate must pass both sections of the written exam (reporting and theory) at the same time. The passing scores for each section are discussed and established after each exam within the TEE Sub-Committee, based on statistical performance of individual questions and on the average level of scores at the respective examinations.
- Usually the cut-off scores for passing are as follow:

• Minimum 32 correct answers out of 50 for the reporting section
• Minimum 65 correct answers out of 100 for the theory section.

Results of the written examination are sent by email within two months after the exam.

More details and examples of questions can be found here.

All you need to know about the day of the examination

Before the examination starts:

• The candidate is required to come to the Certification registration desk at least 30 minutes before the start of the examination in order to sign the registration sheet.
• In addition, the candidate is requested to bring and present an ID document to confirm his/her identity.
• The candidate is kindly asked to bring his/her calculator; the use of calculator in mobile phone is forbidden.
• The candidate will be allowed to enter the exam room only 5 minutes before the examination.
• A candidate number will be given to the candidate on the day of the written examination.
  This number as well as the candidate's name and surname will be indicated on the mark sheet where answers to MCQ must be reported.

During the examination:

• A 30 minutes break will be provided between the reporting and the theory sections (i.e 110 minutes after the start of the examination).
• If a candidate leaves the room before the end of the exam, he/she will have to return his/her marking sheet to the assessors and will not be authorised the re-enter the room nor get access to his/her marking sheet.
• If a candidate completes the exam before the end of the session, he/she is authorised to leave the room.
• Once finished, the candidate is required to hand his/her marking sheet and sign the handover document.

STEP 2 (after having passed the written exam): A practical assessment to be completed within 12 months of passing the written examination. Candidates have to submit a log book consisting of 125 TEE anonymised studies (or 75 if s/he holds certification in TEE).

Important information
- Cases must be gathered within 12 consecutive months.
- Cases can be collected from 1 year before to 1 year after the written exam. Studies consist of the candidate full report for each clinical case.
- The lobgook should be written in the candidate national language*. 15 cases chosen randomly by the ESC Certification Office will be reviewed by 3 graders of the EAE.
- Submitting the logbook in English will fasten the review process.

Results of the practical assessment are sent by e-mail within 6 months after submitting the log book.

Candidates who passed the written exam during EUROECHO 2010 (Copenhagen, December 2010) and during EACTA Congress (Vienna, June 2011) could either submit they logbook in paper version or electronically.

NEW eLogbook!: The eLogbook is a new process which will enable you to: -submit easily and quickly your logbook -speed up the review process by the grader   -avoid any post delay constraint   View the demo about the e-logbook Upon passing the written examination, candidates will be informed on how to submit their eLogbook and will be granted access to the platform with personal access details.

Documents to submit with the eLogbook:
(templates available below)

• Letter from the supervisor documenting training and the review of studies undertaken by the candidate. Make sure that ONLY the candidate's number appears in the letter.  Any letter received with the candidate's name will be rejected. 
  
• Letter from the supervisor testifying that the candidate has performed and reported 125 clinical transesophageal cases. Make sure that ONLY the candidate's number appears in the letter.  Any letter received with the candidate's name will be rejected. 
  
• 125 cases summary sheet assessed by candidate's supervisor

Failure will oblige the candidate to start the whole process from the beginning.
Candidate may raise an appeal to the EAE Certification Committee. The appeal procedure for re-evaluation of a logbook is charged 50 Euros.
To open an appeal procedure, please follow instructions indicated in the results letter.

How to prepare for the examination?

To increase your chances of success to the written examination, you may prepare yourself by accessing the EAE Educational area.

This section holds information on education-related areas such as:

• Key Reference Library: articles that have been judged as fundamental documents to guide medical practice in the field of echocardiography.
• Educational Resources (Slides)
• EAE Echo webinars (live online seminars)
• Educational and preparatory courses: courses organised by or in collaboration with the EAE
• Echo Hall of Fame: interview with distinguished echocardiographers.
• Webcasts - please note that some resources are exclusively restricted to EAE members and as such a login to My ESC is required.
• EAE Core syllabus
• EAE textbook of Echocardiography, ESC textbook of Imaging

Frequently Asked Questions 


Questionnaires examples:

Theory Multiple Choice Questions; Echo Reporting Section MCQs and Glossary are available


For any information, please contact us here