Instructing Ultrasound-guided Examination Techniques Using a Social Media Smartphone App

Social media applications on smartphones allow for new avenues of instruction in sports medicine and exercise sciences. This study tested the feasibility of instructing health care personnel through videos of ultrasound vascular measurements distributed by a social media messenger application. After two training sessions with an ultrasound device, voluntary physicians (n=10) and nurses (n=10) received a video for the performance of an ultrasound-guided determination of intima-media-thickness and diameter of the femoral arteries via a social media messenger application. All participants examined the same healthy human subject. There was no significant difference between the groups regarding overall time of performance, measurements of the femoral arteries, or a specifically designed “assessment of mobile imparted arterial ultrasound determination” score. The physicians group achieved significantly higher scores in the established “objective structured assessment of ultrasound skills” score (p=0.019). Approval of the setting was high in both groups. Transmission of videos via social media applications can be used for instructions on the performance of ultrasound-guided vascular examinations in sports medicine, even if investigators’ performances differ depending on their grade of ultrasound experience. In the future, the chosen approach should be tested in practical scientific examination settings.