ECHO20003 - Fetal Echocardiography

General Information

Unit Synopsis

Both echocardiographers and sonographers require expertise in fetal echocardiography. This unit will cover fetal cardiac structure, function, pathophysiology and scanning techniques at an advanced level. During this unit you will progress through standard heart views to focus on the ultrasound appearance and Doppler haemodynamics of congenital and acquired cardiac abnormalities and common syndromes. You will develop the ability to recognise fetal arrhythmias. You will acquire knowledge of advanced imaging techniques tailored to fetal echocardiography including spatio-temporal imaging correlation (STIC), 3D and 4D colour Doppler, tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) and some common cardiac physiological measurements.

Details

Level Postgraduate
Unit Level 9
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 2
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites

Pre-requisite:

Students must be enrolled in
CV83 Master of Medical Ultrasound

Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).

Class Timetable View Unit Timetable
Residential School No Residential School

Unit Availabilities from Term 3 - 2024

There are no availabilities for this unit on or after Term 3 - 2024

Attendance Requirements

All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).

Assessment Overview

Recommended Student Time Commitment

Each 6-credit Postgraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.

Assessment Tasks

Assessment Task Weighting
1. Portfolio 50%
2. Online Quiz(zes) 50%

This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).

Consult the University's Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades

Past Exams

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Previous Feedback

Term 2 - 2022 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 100.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 50% response rate.

Feedback, Recommendations and Responses

Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.

Source: Have Your Say.
Feedback
Students liked having an assessment as fortnightly quizzes as it helped them consolidate their learning.
Recommendation
Continue presenting assessment 1 as a fortnightly quiz.
Action Taken
Assessment 1 was presented as a fortnightly quiz.
Source: Have Your Say.
Feedback
Students liked having real life video examples of heart defects incorporated into lectures and Zoom tutorials.
Recommendation
Continue the practice of presenting authentic examples of pathology.
Action Taken
New videos of the normal heart and congenital heart disease were sourced and incorporated into the learning material and tutorials.
Source: Have Your Say.
Feedback
Students commented on the friendly informal Zoom tutorials where interesting and unusual cases could be discussed.
Recommendation
Continue the practice of encouraging students to present clinical cases they have been involved in so they can be reviewed in a low stress environment via Zoom tutorials.
Action Taken
Students were encouraged to share on Zoom de-identified images and videos of fetal hearts they had scanned clinically.
Source: Have Your Say. Emails.
Feedback
Students felt the authentic unit learning material with provision of real life cases helped their learning.
Recommendation
Continue to include clinically-focused authentic, real-world learning material.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: Zoom tutorials.
Feedback
Students enjoyed the critique of current literature during tutorials that aligned with real life cases.
Recommendation
Consider continuing the process of aligning case studies with current literature to enhance student learning.
Action Taken
In Progress
Unit learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  1. Differentiate the aetiology and Doppler haemodynamics of fetal cardiac abnormalities
  2. Contrast typical 2-D and Doppler fetal echocardiographic views used to assess the fetal heart
  3. Evaluate existing and emerging technology and diagnostic parameters in fetal echocardiography
  4. Apply critical thinking to fetal cardiac assessment.

Linked to National and International Standards
1. ASAR Accreditation Standards for Cardiac Sonography - critical practice Unit 8 - Cardiac
2. European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging Core Syllabus
3. American Registry for Cardiac Sonography Core Syllabus

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4
1 - Portfolio • • • •
2 - Online Quiz(zes) • • •
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
• Professional Level
• Advanced Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4
1 - Knowledge • • • •
2 - Communication • • •
3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills • • • •
4 - Research •
5 - Self-management •
6 - Ethical and Professional Responsibility •
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
• Professional Level
• Advanced Level
Assessment Tasks Graduate Attributes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1 - Portfolio • • • • •
2 - Online Quiz(zes) • • •