Transforming Pediatric Cardiology Fellowship Education: Multi-center Outcomes of the MACH-3 Virtual Reality Program for HLHS

Previous work has shown that virtual reality (VR) curricula can improve basic understanding of congenital heart disease. The efficacy of using VR to teach more complex cardiac anatomy and physiology, such as hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), is unknown. First-year fellows from thirteen pediatric cardiology fellowship programs participated in this study and were included in an intervention group or a control group. The intervention group completed the Michigan Anatomic Congenital Heart in 3D (MACH-3) curriculum. Both groups then completed a validated assessment tool. The total assessment score was calculated by summing the number of questions that participants answered correctly, ranging from 0 to 29. The difference in total assessment scores between the groups was examined using two-sample t-test and Cohen’s d effect size. A total of 56 fellows were included in the analysis. Participants in the intervention group achieved higher mean total assessment scores (n = 25, 23.8 ± 3.0 questions correct out of 29) than those in the control group (n = 31, 21.7 ± 3.9 questions correct) (p = 0.04), with a moderate effect size of 0.58. Most participants in the intervention group reported the curriculum was easy to use (96%) and enjoyable (92%), and all felt the curriculum improved their knowledge base (100%). In a multi-center educational study, a VR curriculum was shown to improve pediatric cardiology fellow knowledge of HLHS anatomy and physiology while receiving nearly universally positive feedback from participants. Future directions include expansion to include other complex cardiac lesions and investigation of incorporation of VR into fellowship curricula.