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The Best Online Echocardiography Courses

Top Free and Paid Online Echo Resources

Whether you’re brand new to echocardiography (echo), or just need to brush up on some key skills, here are the best #FOAMed resources and online echocardiography courses for physicians and other healthcare providers. 

This list includes the course pros and cons, pricing, topics covered, and other differentiating details.

Selection criteria for the cardiac ultrasound courses on this list

In order to be included, they needed to have all of the following characteristics:

  • English language
  • Structured training that provides learners with a clearly defined learning path
  • Easily accessible online, with no need for a formal application process
  • Pricing and other course details must be provided without any requirement to register for an account first
  • Options that were simply a collection of examples, references, and/or practice cases were not included
  • Offers a wide range of learning opportunities from foundational to advanced levels, relevant to most healthcare professionals including physicians, physician assistants, and nurses.
  • Courses needed to be easily found in Google search results.
  • Providers must not prevent UK and European Union residents from accessing their website.

There weren’t any free options that met all of the above criteria. However, the good news is that there were several #FOAMed resources you could use for supplemental learning, and those are listed below the paid resources.

Top Paid Resources—Online Echocardiography Courses

1. Medmastery

Medmastery is a multiple award-winning provider of continuing medical education that’s been endorsed by the British Medical Association. 

They’ve taught over 300,000 clinicians, and have hundreds of 5-star reviews on Trustpilot, with an overall rating of ‘excellent’. 

Medmastery has 10 online echo courses that provide the following: 

  • 35 echocardiography AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ (they’re also accredited in the EU)
  • 396 echocardiography lessons in video format
  • More than 1200 pages of illustrated echocardiography handbooks and “cheat sheets” are available in PDF format to accompany their courses—these can be very useful as study aids, or reference materials in the clinic.

Their course video lessons average less than 4 minutes long, so they’re short enough to fit into even small openings in your day.

Their cardiac ultrasound courses walk you through beginner to expert level skills on a variety of echocardiography topics:

Paid membership include the following:

  • All of their echocardiography training
  • All 26 of their cardiology courses (including their popular ECG Mastery Program)
  • 16 more ultrasound courses
  • More than 100 additional courses that cover over 17 clinical specialties
  • More than 20 webinars

You can grab a Pro or Basic account to get access to their entire course library. Or, test them out with a free trial account—a trial account gives you access to the first few lessons of every single one of their courses.

Pros
  • Because their membership fee gives you access to their entire course library, you get a lot of value for what you pay.
  • Their teaching style incorporates a lot of fun elements, while still being really informative.
  • Generally speaking, they tend to renew accreditation for their courses, so there’s no rush to finish them and you can go through the material at your own pace.
  • There’s no waiting period for access—all of their courses are available on-demand and online. 
  • They’re accredited in both the United States (AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™) and European Union.
Cons
  • You don’t have the option of purchasing one course at a time. However, if you don’t need CMEs, you could go for a Basic monthly membership—given that it includes access to 100% of their course library, the monthly price is pretty low, and you can cancel as soon as you finish all the courses that you need.
Pricing

They have three membership options. Here’s how to choose the best one for your needs:

1. Basic membership—access to their entire course library, but NO CME 

  • Annual versus monthly plans
    • If you plan to spend 9 or more months going through their courses, choose the annual plan—it’ll be most cost-effective and averages out to just 35 USD per month.
    • If you have time to do all the courses you need in fewer than 9 months, the monthly plan will be the most cost-effective at 47 USD per month.
  • Includes the following:
    • Access to all 130+ of their courses and workshops across 17+ clinical specialties
    • Access to 19 webinars
    • Thousands of pages of downloadable course handbooks, cheat sheets, and other reference material

2. Pro membership—includes CME and access to their entire course library

  • It averages out to 47 USD per month and is billed annually in a lump sum
  • Pro members get CME credits, in addition to everything that’s included with a Basic account
  • You get unrestricted access to their entire course library, downloadable handbooks, webinars, etc. 

3. Trial account—includes limited access to selected course material, webinars, and free downloads

  • If you want to try before you buy, choose the trial account—it’ll give you access to the first chapter of each course, selected webinars, and more.
  • It’s FREE.
External Links

2. Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM): Critical Care Echocardiography Review Online

The SCCM offers a couple of options for online echocardiography courses, both of which are available on-demand, and focused on the applications and use of echocardiography in critical care.

The first option is their 2024 Critical Care Echocardiography Review Online, for which access opens up in December 2024. The second option is their Critical Care Echocardiography Board Review course, which provides up to 23 hours of continuing education credits and is available now. Both of those options provide an unspecified number of continuing education credits.

Pros
  • If you’re looking for cardiac ultrasound courses specifically geared towards critical care, this is a nice option, albeit with a high price.
Cons
  • These online echo courses aren’t intended for beginners—you should only attempt them if you already have a good base level of knowledge on echocardiography and ultrasound.
Pricing
  • 2024 Critical Care Echocardiography Review Online: 2405 USD
  • Critical Care Echocardiography Board Review: 2340 USD
External Links

3. 123sonography

123sonography has taught more than 400,000 students since they launched their first course back in 2010, and is rated 4.7 on Trustpilot with over 190 reviews. They provide over 90 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ in echocardiography, spread across several courses.

If you opt to try 123sonography, you’ll have to pay for each of their cardiac ultrasound courses separately. Here are examples of their pricing for 1 year of course access:

  • Echo MasterClass 2024 (36.5 CME), 2100 USD
  • Echo BachelorClass (12.75 CME), 1260 USD
  • TEE MasterClass (11 CME), 1344 USD
  • Speckle Tracking MasterClass (12.25 CME), 1414 USD
  • Heart Chamber Quantification MasterClass (4.75 CME), 896 USD
  • Adult Congenital Heart Disease BachelorClass (16.5 CME), 1400 USD

If you don’t need an entire year of access and want to cut your costs down to the absolute minimum, you can instead go with a monthly subscription plan for 4 months (their minimum monthly subscription duration)—that will reduce your costs by about half. But be careful if you go that route because if you forget to cancel and keep your subscription going for 12 months, you’d actually end up paying 50% more than you would have if you’d signed up for their 1-year plan in the first place. 

Pros
  • They have a nice variety of echocardiography courses online and on-demand.
Cons
  • Their pricing is higher than some of the other options.
  • They don’t offer training on non-ultrasound-related topics, so you need to go elsewhere for that.
Pricing

They offer several pricing options for the purchase of individual courses, though not all options are available for all courses on their website:

  • Monthly plans: The minimum commitment required is 4 months, then you can cancel any time after that. 
  • One-time payment plans: The options available for each course can vary, but generally speaking, you can choose between access periods of 6 months, 12 months, and 24 months.

Here’s a complete pricing example using their Echo MasterClass 2024:

  • Monthly plan
    • 1068 USD minimum (i.e. 267 USD x 4 months), then 267 USD per month thereafter until you cancel
  • One-time payment options:
    • 1500 USD for 6 months
    • 2100 USD for 12 months
    • 3600 USD for 24 months
External Links

4. American Society of Echocardiography

Particularly if the ASCeXAM is in your future, the American Society of Echocardiography’s online ASCeXAM Review Course is worth a look. This is also a nice option for general education on cardiac ultrasound.

How effective is the course? Well, back in 2020 they said a recent survey showed that 97% of people who took their course passed their echo boards.

The number of CME credits provided by the latest version of their ASCeXAM Review course is unknown at this time. However, in both 2023 and 2024, their course was approved for 28.75 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™, so it seems likely that the 2025 course will be similar. 

Examples of topics covered include the following: the physics of cardiovascular ultrasound, contrast echocardiography, valvular heart disease and strain, congenital heart disease, ischemic heart disease, 3D imaging, and more.

They also offer an Advanced Echo course which provides 13.75 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. The course covers how to use echocardiography to diagnose, treat, and manage a wide range of cardiac conditions. Examples of topics covered include the following:

  • Assessing valvular function
  • Clinical uses for 3D and transesophageal echocardiography
  • Cardiomyopathies
  • Ischemic heart disease
  • Contrast echocardiography 
Pros
  • After access opens up in May 2025, you’ll have on-demand access to all of the pre-recorded presentations for the course, along with accompanying slide decks (in PDF format).
Cons
  • There’s a waiting period for access to the ASCeXAM Review course—registration starts in January 2025, and access to the course materials begins on  May 5, 2025.
    • Early birds will need to wait to claim CME—CME won’t be available until after their live session in July 2025 (the exact date was not available at the time of this writing).
    • The window for you to access the course and claim your echo CME is limited, as they are closing off access in August of 2025.
    • If you miss the window of opportunity but feel you’d benefit from this course, keep an eye on their site for updates.  Based on what they’ve done in the past, it’s likely that a new version of this course will launch each year.
Pricing

Here’s the pricing for their online echo courses:

  • ASCeXAM Review course
    • Pricing for the 2025 version of the course wasn’t available at the time of this writing.
      • 1275 USD for the 2024 version of the course
  • Advanced Echo course
    • 420 USD for ASE non-members
    • 300 USD for ASE members
External Links

ASE ASCeXAM Review Course
Advanced Echo course

5. Gulfcoast Ultrasound

Gulfcoast Ultrasound Institute, true to their name, is exclusively focused on ultrasound training, and they have a nice selection of online echocardiography courses. 

Their pricing model is to charge for each course individually, and if you’re curious about pricing, here are examples of what you’d pay for one year of course access:

  • Introduction to Adult Echocardiography, 23.25 CME, 1120 USD
  • Focused Echocardiography, 12.5 CME, 725 USD 
  • Adult Echocardiography Registry Review, 10.5 CME, 390 USD
  • Introduction to Adult Echocardiography Course Pack, 22.5 CME, 1734.90 USD
  • They also provide smaller courses within their CME Vitals series, most of which provide 1 CME and typically cost 25 USD apiece.

They currently have 48 reviews on Google, with an average rating of 5/5 stars.

Pros
  • Their collection of online echo courses cover a lot of ground.
Cons
  • They don’t provide training on non-ultrasound topics.
Pricing
  • Their cardiac ultrasound courses range in price from 1120 USD for Introduction to Adult Echocardiography, down to 25 USD for a 1-CME CME Vitals course.
External Links

6. Mayo Clinic: Classics in Echocardiography Online Series

The Mayo Clinic’s Classics in Echocardiography Series is an online cardiac ultrasound course that includes 1 year of access (or until October 11 2026, whichever comes first), and provides 15.75 echo CME (AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™).

They cover both basic and advanced echocardiography topics. Examples of the types of topics covered include how to integrate modern echocardiography into clinical practice, congenital heart disease, ischemic and valvular conditions, stress imaging, complex cardiomyopathies, and more.

Pros
  • They provide on-demand access to the course materials.
Cons
  • If you run out of time to get through it all before the expiry date, there’s currently no option to renew beyond that point.
  • Course material isn’t available for download, so you’ll have to make your own cheat sheets and other reference materials for offline use.
Pricing
  • 550 USD to get access to the course materials for 1 year (or until the expiry date of October 11, 2026, whichever comes first)
External Links

7. European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging (EACVI)

The European Society of Cardiology’s EACVI has several online echocardiography courses providing 34 CME credits that are accredited by the European Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (EACCME). If you need AMA credits, the AMA has agreed to allow EACCME credits to be converted to AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. At the time of this writing, that agreement is in effect until July 31, 2026.

The EACVI Level 1 Certification programme contains a module devoted to echocardiography. It’s intended to ensure you know what echocardiography does and what it’s used for. It’s just under 6.5 hours long, provides 6 CME credits, and they say it will teach you “‘how it works’ and not ‘how to do’”. Additional courses available include the following:

The Transthoracic Echocardiography (TTE) course teaches how to set up the machine, perform TTE, and use TTE to assess your patients. It’s over 12 hours long and provides 12 CME credits.

Their Multi-Modality Imaging (MMI) in Congenital Heart Disease program goes over the use of MMI in diagnosing and managing patients with congenital heart disease. It’s 12 hours long and provides 8 CME credits.

Their Transoesophageal Echocardiography (TOE) course covers how to perform TOE in both 2D and 3D, how to use TOE for patient assessment, and how to use TOE during valve procedures. It’s a little over 7.5 hours long and provides 8 CME credits.

Pros
  • Their online echo courses are accredited in both the EU and U.S.
Cons
  • Their CME training doesn’t include non-cardiac topics, so you’ll have to look elsewhere for that.
Pricing

To get access to all of their cardiac ultrasound courses and the 34 CME credits described above, it’ll cost you €455. 

However, if you don’t need all of them, you can purchase them separately as follows: 

  •  €100 for their Echocardiography Level 1 certification program
  •  €105 for the EACVI transoesophageal echocardiogram (TOE) tutorials (full module)
  •  €185 for their EACVI transthoracic echocardiogram (TTE) tutorials (full module)
  •  €65 for their EACVI Multi-Modality Imaging in Congenital Heart Disease (MMI CHD) tutorials (full module)
External Links

8. American College of Cardiology (ACC): EchoSAP

The American College of Cardiology (ACC) says their EchoSAP program is suited for any healthcare professional who’s working in the field of echocardiography. The program looks well-rounded, covering a wide range of echo topics: 

  • Study tips
  • Background info
  • Anatomy and physiology of the heart
  • Diseases of the heart valves
  • Congenital heart disease
  • Contrast echocardiography
  • And more. 

The teaching format is primarily text-based (designed to cover the core curriculum for the National Board of Echocardiography’s (NBE) ASCeXAM® blueprint). They also provide video lessons on “major clinical topics”.  You can earn up to 137 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ (plus, up to 137 MOC points with the American Board of Internal Medicine).

Pros
  • The information in the EchoSAP program should be suited for any healthcare professional working in the echocardiography field.
  • Your purchase gets you 3 years of access to the course material.
  • They offer a lot of echo CME points.
Cons
  • The price point is on the high side, however it includes a lot of CME.
Pricing

The price you pay depends on whether or not you’re a member, or if you qualify for the discounted rate:

  • Nonmembers: $1,140
  • Members: $900
  • Reduced: $540

Free “EchoSAP Demo”: you get a time-limited (expires 04/23/2025) sample of their Echo courses (Study Tips and Background: Build A Quiz, Simulate a Board Exam Session, Valvular Heart Disease, Congenital Heart Disease, Cardiac Masses, Pericardial Diseases, Contrast Echocardiography, Miscellaneous Topics)

External Links

9. Echo Guru

Echo Guru is run by clinical cardiac sonographer Tony Forshaw. He has over 20 years of experience, and a master’s degree in cardiac ultrasound. So far his online training has involved over 250 instructors from around the world, and taught over 4200 people. Here are some of the online echocardiography training options available on his website.

Courses provided

A Contrast Ultrasound Summit consisting of 15 lectures on various aspects of using ultrasound enhancing agents (UAE), and providing up to 8 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Topics covered include the following:

  • New clinical guidelines and details on when to use ultrasound enhancing agents for patients undergoing echocardiography
  • The main reasons why you’d use contrast echocardiography in the areas of critical care and emergency medicine.
  • How to optimise the imaging settings to get the best results
  • How to assess cardiac masses, intracardiac shunts, and the left ventricle
  • Myocardial perfusion imaging, and enhancing Doppler signals.

The Echo Supervisor Summit is geared towards anyone involved in echocardiography supervision or training, and provides 10 hours of content (no AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™). Examples of topics covered include the following:

  • Teaching and research
  • Radiation exposure
  • Goal setting and mentoring
  • Resilience
Pros
  • The summit format allows for learning from multiple instructors, which could be great in terms of getting multiple perspectives on the subject matter.
Cons
  • Your purchase provides access for less than a year (9 months).
  • You can’t get AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ with all of their programs.
Pricing

Contrast Ultrasound Summit

  • 552 AUD or 360 USD for the physician registration package, which includes 8 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™

Echo Supervisor Summit

  • 309 AUD or 206 USD
  • No AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ are available
External Links

Final Verdict

There are some great options out there for online echocardiography courses, and it wasn’t easy to narrow it down to the short list we have here. And ultimately your individual needs will determine which of these options is truly the best one for you in particular. 

For most people, we think Medmastery is a solid choice. Firstly, they have a great selection of cardiac ultrasound courses. Secondly, because their membership fee gives you access to their entire library of over 130 courses (which includes their case-based workshops), you can’t go wrong in terms of value for your money. If you don’t need CME, for example, you could whip through as many of their courses as you want within a month for only 47 USD, which is pretty great! That said, you’ll probably enjoy the experience more if you take your time, and even if you end up choosing a Pro membership, the pricing is very reasonable for what you get.

If you need to learn about an aspect of echocardiography that Medmastery doesn’t cover, odds are that another provider on this list will have you covered. 

If you’re a student, be sure to inquire about student discounts, as that can save you a significant amount. For example, students can get 50% off Medmastery’s Basic membership (details here) as well as 123sonography’s courses.

Free FOAMed Resources to complement the above online echocardiography courses

We didn’t come across any free echocardiography training providers that met all of our criteria for inclusion, but here are some FOAMed resources to supplement your learning.

1. LITFL—articles and more
2. Mayo Clinic—videos
3. Houston Methodist—videos
4. Toronto General Hospital—echocardiography simulator
5. The University of Utah—recorded lectures
6. University of Toronto—interactive echocardiography tools
7. POCUS101—article and video

ULTRASOUND LIBRARY

POCUS, eFAST and basic principles

Library

BA MA (Oxon) MBChB (Edin) FACEM FFSEM. Emergency physician, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital.  Passion for rugby; medical history; medical education; and asynchronous learning #FOAMed evangelist. Co-founder and CTO of Life in the Fast lane | Eponyms | Books | Twitter |

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