Cardiac Implantable Electronic Device Educational Application for Cardiac Anesthesiology Trainees: Tutorial on App Development

Despite the exposure of cardiothoracic anesthesiology trainees to patients with cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIEDs), there is a paucity of formal curricula on this subject. Major impediments to educating cardiothoracic anesthesiology trainees on CIEDs include busy clinical schedules, short staffing, inconsistent trainees' exposure to CIEDs, multiplicity of vendors, and a "millennial" mentality of the new generation of learners. As a result, cardiothoracic anesthesiology trainees graduating from their residency and fellowship programs may lack the competency to manage patients with CIEDs. Herein, we report our systematic approach to designing, validating, mapping, evaluating, and delivering a CIED curriculum on the first mobile app of its kind on this subject. Development of the CIED curriculum proceeded through the Kern 6-step approach of problem identification, determining and prioritizing content, writing goals and objectives, selecting instructional strategies, implementation of the material, and evaluation and applications of lessons learned. This was followed by the delivery of the curriculum in the form of a user-study app and administrator-type app with functionalities in the assessment of the learners' gains, experience, and satisfaction as well as the administrator's capability to update the educational content based on the feedback of the learners and the emerging technology. As such, the CIED app allows asynchronous learning at the pace of the learners and allows, through a multiplicity of educational materials, the ability to digest this complex and understudied subject. We report on the pilot phase of the project. We benefit from the experience of a multidisciplinary team of anesthesiologists, computer scientists, and educators in accomplishing this project.