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Hypothesis: Expert levels can be developed for use as training end points for a basic video-trainer skills curriculum, and the levels developed will be suitable for training. Design: Fifty subjects with minimal prior simulator exposure were enrolled using an institutional review boardapproved protocol. As a measure of baseline performance, medical students (n=11) and surgery residents (n=39) completed 3 trials on each of 5 validated videotrainer tasks. Four board-certified surgeons established as laparoscopic experts (with more than 250 basic and more than 50 advanced cases) performed 11 trials on each of the 5 tasks. The mean score was determined and outliers (Ͼ2 SDs) were trimmed; the trimmed mean was used as the competency level. Baseline performance of each subject was compared with the competency level for each task.

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This experience with the de novo implementation of a trauma US program suggests that the training and credentialing requirements in this study are sufficient to provide surgeon ultrasonographers with acceptable competence in US diagnosis of blunt abdominal trauma.