UNMC anesthesiologists teach special echocardiography course

UNMC’s Candice Montzingo, M.D., works with a physician enrolled in a special echocardiography course for anesthesiologists at UNMC. The course, taught by Dr. Montzingo, Tara Brakke, M.D., and Sasha Shillcutt, M.D., is only offered at UNMC and the University of Utah.

Three UNMC anesthesiologists have launched a fellowship program to teach anesthesiologists from around the country to use ultrasound technology to improve safety for surgical patients.

The anesthesiologists — Tara Brakke, M.D., Candice Montzingo, M.D., and Sasha Shillcutt, M.D. — went to the University of Utah for intensive training in echocardiography, which is a real time ultrasound of the heart.

The course originator in Utah, Dan Vezina, M.D., was so impressed with the three UNMC physicians that he asked them to create a satellite training program in Nebraska.

Rare qualification Read another story in this morning’s UNMC Today about Drs. Brakke and Shillcutt receiving special qualification to use transthoracic echocardiography.

“The three UNMC physicians were probably the best and most enthusiastic physicians that I have trained,” said Dr. Vezina, who has trained more than 100 physicians on echocardiography. “They can truly make a huge difference for these physicians and their patients.”

The course consists of a total of 160 hours of training in echocardiography at UNMC as well as continuous training for each participant at their local hospitals. Participants come to Omaha for four, week-long sessions held about three months apart.

Currently, six anesthesiologists are enrolled, including one from Creighton University and others from California, Kentucky, Kansas, Louisiana and Oregon.

“Echocardiography enables us to assess how well the heart is working or not working,” Dr. Brakke said. “Because the video images are captured in real time, we are able to watch the heart at any point during the surgical procedure and evaluate how it responds to our anesthetic drugs and surgical stress and manipulation.”

The special echocardiography course for anesthesiologists helps ensure patient safety during surgery.

Carey Pilo, M.D., a Louisville, Ky., anesthesiologist currently enrolled in the program, said the course fills a void that isn’t covered in residency training.

“Everything we learn here is immediately useful to us,” he said.

UNMC sent a total of six physicians to complete the course in Utah. They are the only physicians in Nebraska to have completed the course, Dr. Shillcutt said. It paid off dramatically last May when a 71-year-old Omaha man undergoing surgery to remove a cancerous portion of his colon developed three large blood clots that traveled to his heart.

“Without echocardiography, we never would have known about these blood clots,” she said. “Had he been sent back to his hospital room after surgery, he very likely would have died.”

See more about UNMC’s fellowship program in echocardiography.