Type:
Educational Exhibit
Keywords:
Interventional non-vascular, Other, Biopsy, Education, Education and training
Authors:
R. X.-G. Man, J. Coucher
DOI:
10.26044/ranzcr2023/C-276
Background
During the early phases of learning new interventional skills, trainees are often supervised from the control room of the CT scanner or angiography suite by their supervisor. Unfortunately, often the channels of communication available have limitations, for example, typing messages on the console display or having to use the intercom. The intercom is optimized for the radiographer to communicate with the patient, and in our experience, can be either unpredictably loud or inaudible. A better solution is needed to improve communications between trainee and supervisor, ideally with them not audible to the patient.
Discussing complex technical jargon and explicit directions during critical portions of a procedure with a fully awake patient in the room can potentially increase patient anxiety and reduce patient satisfaction. It would be better for the communication of instructions between the trainee and the supervisor to be discrete but still instantaneous and of high quality. We report our initial experience with bone-conduction Bluetooth headphones as an alternative communication method between trainee and supervisor. These are comfortable, secure to wear, and provide high audio quality but leave the trainee’s external ears open to allow full communication with the patient. The patient is unable to hear the Bluetooth audio channel.