IEEE transactions on bio-medical engineering
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IEEE Trans Biomed Eng · Dec 2012
Perk Tutor: an open-source training platform for ultrasound-guided needle insertions.
Image-guided needle placement, including ultrasound (US)-guided techniques, have become commonplace in modern medical diagnosis and therapy. To ensure that the next generations of physicians are competent using this technology, efficient and effective educational programs need to be developed. This paper presents the Perk Tutor: a configurable, open-source training platform for US-guided needle insertions. ⋯ The Perk Tutor provides the trainee with quantitative feedback on progress toward the specific learning objectives of each configuration. Configurations were implemented through simple rearrangement of hardware and software components, attesting to the modularity and ease of configuration. The Perk Tutor is provided as a free resource to enable research and development of educational programs for US-guided intervention.