Table and Figure Legends
Table 1. Clinical characteristics of study cohort.
Figure 1. Example of the automated transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE) program as seen on the Siemens ACUSON SC2000 echocardiogram machine. The automated protocol (eSie ScanTM) automatically advances the echocardiography machine to each of the views on the protocol list (right panel) while adjusting the setting, angles, and other view specifics between each image acquisition. The operator adjusts the TEE probe within the esophagus (proximal/distal motion in the esophagus, anteflexion/retroflexion of the TEE probe, clockwise/counterclockwise motion) to bring the next/appropriate image acquisition into view. The sonographer is able to make adjustments to each view based on a patient’s specific anatomy. A manual protocol has no right sided panel and the echocardiogram machine does not adjust any settings between image acquisition (requiring all settings to be changed by the sonographer).
Figure 2. Automated protocol has a shorter study duration and less total keystrokes compared to manual protocol regardless of experience level (2a and 2c). There is a greater overall reduction in study duration when the automated protocol is performed second (2b). Total keystrokes were less in the automated protocol regardless of the order of protocol performed (2d).
Figure 3. Automated protocol reduced the number of keystrokes across all categories compared to manual protocol without a significant difference in number of images acquired. Misc. = Miscellaneous
Supplemental Table 1. List of views included in each automated transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE) protocol