School of Echocardiography - Институт Дедиње

The Institute for Cardiovascular Diseases “Dedinje” pays great attention to the education of doctors employed at the Institute, as well as doctors from other institutions in the country and the world, who have different specialties, in various subdisciplines of cardiovascular medicine and imaging, but also in new technologies that the Institute “Dedinje ”continuously develops.

The school of echocardiography belongs to one of the oldest educational programs of the Institute “Dedinje” and currently includes a basic course in transthoracic echocardiography and two advanced courses – in transesophageal echocardiography and stress echocardiography.

The entire staff of the Department of Non-Invasive Heart Diagnostics participates in the education:

Prof. Dr Alkesandra Nikolić – program host,
Doc. Dr Slobodan Tomić and Dr Milan Vuković – program co-hosts,
Dr Ljiljana Trkulja,
Mr. sci. Med. Dr Snezana Dimitrijević,
Dr Branislava Borzanović,
Dr Dragana Radoičić,
Dr Jovana Lakčević,
Dr Stefan Veljković,
Dr Ana Peruničić

Echo technicians
Sanja Vučinić,
Sanja Kablar,
Lidija Milunović,
Mira Gojković,
Sanja Berić,
Biljana Jerinić
Jelena Milajić

And until 2021, Vesna Milivojević and Marienka Vereš.

All echocardiography courses at the Institute “Dedinje” strive to follow the trends of modern echocardiography (both basic 2D and 3D echocardiography, as well as advanced courses such as transesophageal and stress echocardiography) and apply them in education following the latest ESC and ACC/AHA recommendations, as well as new methods that are developing rapidly in echocardiography.

Basic echocardiography

The first basic echocardiography course began on September 24, 2007 and included the education of 13 participants. From 2007 until today, there have been 27 basic echocardiography courses, with two courses each year lasting 12 weeks. Basic echocardiography courses were not interrupted even during the SARS-CoV-2 virus pandemic, but they were modified in the practical approach, all in accordance with the then current epidemiological situation. So far, over 350 participants have completed the basic course of echocardiography.

Basic course during the SARS-CoV-2 virus pandemic

One of the facts that we are most proud of is that, in addition to doctors from Belgrade and other cities in the Republic of Serbia, a large number of participants from surrounding countries were also educated here.

The basic course consists of two parts – theoretical and practical.

The theoretical part is introductory, it lasts five working days, and during that time the participants have the opportunity to hear lectures by lecturers from our Institute, as well as leading experts in this field from other tertiary health institutions in Belgrade. During the lectures, which are thematically divided into days, the participants have the opportunity to see and learn what normal findings look like, as well as numerous pathological conditions, which they do not often have the opportunity to see live in routine practice in their healthcare institutions.

The practical part consists of 11 weeks of continuous hands-on training in the echocardiography rooms of the Dedinje Institute, Department of Noninvasive Heart Diagnostics. The participants were divided into two shifts so that each of the participants could do the prescribed number of examinations independently.

The course ends with a theoretical (test of 30 questions), but also a practical exam (working with patients), as a final analysis of everything they learned during the education.

Passing the theoretical part of the final exam.

Transesophageal echocardiography course

The course of transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) was started in 2009. Five courses have been held so far. A prerequisite for the TEE course is knowledge of transthoracic echocardiography. The duration of the course is two months, of which lectures are organized in the first week, followed by the practical part in the following seven weeks, which includes TEE examinations in echocardiography rooms, as well as intraoperative and periinterventional TEE examinations.

Stress echocardiography course

The stress echocardiography course lasts one month, of which lectures are organized in the first three days of the course. Knowledge of conventional transthoracic echocardiography is a prerequisite for this course. The first stress echocardiography course was held in 2011, and six courses have been held so far.