Blended FAST Training Shows Noninferior EMT Performance in Prospective Study

Emergency medical technicians without prior ultrasound certification met a prespecified noninferiority criterion for focused assessment with sonography in trauma, or FAST, image acquisition after a standardized blended training program, compared with junior resident physicians. The prospective observational study included 20 emergency medical technicians and 20 postgraduate year 1 or 2 junior resident physicians who completed the same curriculum. Across four sequential sessions, EMTs’ mean task-specific checklist scores were statistically consistent with the residents’ scores within a prespecified 5-point noninferiority margin, with 95% confidence intervals remaining within that margin and all associated one-sided p-values below 0.001.

The training combined online instruction with brief, practical phantom-based sessions. Investigators evaluated performance using a task-specific checklist and total examination time, with mean checklist score as the primary outcome. The study therefore compared the two groups under one defined training sequence rather than testing whether one teaching format worked better than another. Because the design was prospective and observational, the results describe performance under the tested curriculum and do not establish that the training program caused the observed differences.

Overall noninferiority did not mean that every individual view was scored identically. Residents performed better on the Douglas pouch view, with a reported p-value of 0.002, while scores for the other site-specific views were comparable between the groups. EMTs initially required longer examinations than residents, a difference associated with a reported p-value of 0.003, but their examination times converged by the final session. The analysis also found that EMTs had a significantly more rapid learning curve across the four-session sequence, indicating faster improvement in their measured learning trajectory. These findings are limited to the skills, assessment method, training sessions, and participant groups included in the study.

Questionnaire-based evaluations showed that EMTs reported greater satisfaction and higher self-efficacy regarding the online learning program than residents. Those measures captured participants’ own perceptions of the digital component and are separate from the objectively recorded checklist and timing results. Taken together, the study reports that EMTs achieved FAST image-acquisition performance that met the prespecified noninferiority threshold relative to junior resident physicians following blended online and practical training, while also showing a site-specific advantage for residents and an early timing disadvantage for EMTs that narrowed during the course of training.

Subject of Research: Comparative evaluation of blended FAST ultrasound training for emergency medical technicians and junior resident physicians

Article Title: Effectiveness of blended E-Learning for FAST ultrasound training: a comparative study of emergency medical technicians and junior resident physicians: a prospective observational study

Article References: Kuriyama, C., Ageta, K., Maki, J., Ohira, A., Sakata, S., Mitsuhashi, T., Takasaki, Y., Sakurai, J., Maeda, Y., & Masuyama, H. (2026). Effectiveness of blended E-Learning for FAST ultrasound training: a comparative study of emergency medical technicians and junior resident physicians: a prospective observational study. BMC Medical Education. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-026-10313-8

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s12909-026-10313-8

Keywords: FAST ultrasound, blended learning, emergency medical technicians, junior resident physicians, medical education, phantom-based training, image acquisition, noninferiority, prehospital care, Effectiveness, blended, E-Learning