Me with Douglas Hansel, my first ECMO coordinator in 1995.

Answer correctly, move on. Choose an incorrect option and get connected to an explanation of why that choices was incorrect. Then, you are returned to the options to try again. Continue until the problem is solved. No grading, no scores, just information, explanations and learning.

Slowly over time I developed additional cases in all aspects of ECMO management: Adults, Peds and Neonates; Cardiac, Respiratory and mixed organ failure support; patient and circuit management. I developed “Simulated Consults” for group discussions about ECMO eligibility, and ECMO Ethics cases for active discussion and debate of complex cases. The more I taught, the more I learned. I continued to decline requests for copies of the cases, as they were a “work in progress”, and hoped to find a larger forum. I began work on a book, but quickly realized that the medium was as boring as didactics, and instead elected to expand the cases into a web-based educational format. And The ECMO Academy was “born”.

The Academy cases are designed for “ECMOLOGISTS” of every level. You don’t have to know any of the answers to work through the information, since the case will guide you through, and you can’t exit a case until you’ve “learned the right answer. I still believe that the ideal circumstance is a mixed group of 3 or 4 team members working together; a specialist, an intensivist and, a nurse; or a perfusionist, a surgeon and an RN ECMO specialist; or a cardiologist, an RT ECMO specialist, a perfusionist and a bedside RN. Each team member provides unique insights into the patient, the circuit and the interaction between the two. Soon, they are teaching each other as they move forward. And while that has been my prefered use of these cases during formal ECMO courses, many students have preferred to work at their own rate, and they have found it equally valuable. Clearly both are effective options. The Blog discussions and detailed “Deep Dives” are well suited for individual study and review, while the benefits of large group discussion and debate are important, if not essential, elements of the Simulated ECMO Consults and Ethics cases.

Each ECMO program can decide how to best use the material in the Academy. It might work well as a component of an in-house ECMO Course for a new or expanding program, or it might fill a role in the program’s continuing education of their team. However you choose to make use of the library of cases, I hope your team members see it as a continued resource; THE place to go for ECMO information, review, discussions and updates.

Michael H. Hines MD, FACS

ECMO Academy “Dean”