Use of Novel Anthropomorphic Breast Ultrasound Phantoms for Radiology Resident Education

Purpose: This study evaluated the training and assessment role of anthropomorphic breast ultrasound phantoms that simulated both the morphological and sonographic characteristics of breast tissue, including lesions, in a group of radiology residents at a large academic medical center.

Methods: This was a prospective study involving nine residents across second to fourth years of a radiology residency program. Two devices (phantom 1 and phantom 2) were designed and constructed to produce similar realistic sonographic images of breast morphology with a range of embedded pathologies to provide a realistic training experience. Baseline assessments of all residents' ability to detect and characterize lesions in phantom 1 were carried out, followed by a 2-hour teaching session on the same phantom. All residents underwent a posttraining, final assessment on phantom 2 to evaluate changes in their lesion detection rate and ability to correctly characterize the lesions.

Results: The results demonstrated there was a significant increase in both the pooled detection and correct characterization score for all residents pre- and posttraining of 26% ± 14% and 17% ± 8%, P < .0003, respectively. Posttraining assessment surveys revealed that residents rated the training experience highly.

Conclusions: This study suggests that there is a benefit in including a simulation training workshop with a novel anthropomorphic breast ultrasound training device to a radiology resident education program. Finally, the phantoms used in this study are useful for training and assessment purposes because they provide a lifelike simulation of breast tissue to practice ultrasound imaging without direct exposure to patients, in an environment with no pressure.