Who has developed the Exam?

The exam has been developed by WAVE.  Those mainly involved are Dave Dickson and Hannah Stephenson with help from CSAG members.

When and Where are the Exams held

The first accreditation exam is going to be held on the 9th and 10th June 2025 at the Kennel Club building in Stoneleigh Park, Kenilworth.  Places for this exam are now full.  CSAG hope to run an annual examination and details of the dates for next year will be posted as soon as they are finalised.

Format of the Exam
Candidates will be expected to perform echocardiography on 3 dogs during the course of the
examination and measure two standard sets of images. At least one small breed dog and one
giant breed dog will be examined.
The examination will consist of 4 stations of 45 minutes duration, with 5 minutes between each
station to allow for changeover of dogs and staff. The total length of the examination will therefore be 3 hours 15 minutes.
Three of these stations will be echo stations, where the candidate will perform echocardiography
to obtain a specified list of echocardiography views (see separate guidance). Candidates will be
examined and marked in real time by the examiner. There will be a different examiner at each
echocardiography station so that each candidate is assessed by three different examiners.
Candidates will be expected to obtain but NOT measure images from the patient, during the 45
minute time limit.
One station will consist of measuring images to a defined standard (see separate guidance).
These images have been measured by multiple examiners and candidates will be expected to
measure the images within the confidence intervals generated by these prior measurements.
Candidates are expected to measure both sets of images within the 45 minute time limit.
Measurements will be assessed by the examiners after the examination has finished.
There will be two rounds of examinations in one day, with up to 4 candidates in the morning and 4 candidates in the afternoon.

Echocardiography machines
The examiners will provide echo machines for the candidates to use, if they wish. The machines at the June 2025 exam will be GE Vivid IQ machines. Please inform the CSAG committee if you wish to bring your own machine to the examination. If you are unable to provide your own machine, but would prefer to use a machine from a different manufacturer, please inform the CSAG committee as soon as possible and we will do our best to accommodate for this.
Please note that it is expected that any machines provided by the candidates will be of sufficient
quality to provide diagnostic images for assessment. Any machines provided by the candidates
will need to remain available for the full day of the examination, should images need to be
reviewed.
All other equipment (clippers, gel, ECG pads, echo tables etc) will be provided.

Assessment and Pass Marks
All candidates will be assessed against the criteria provided prior to the examination. As each
candidate is assessed by 3 different examiners, a majority ruling will apply. Candidates will receive a pass/fail assessment. For candidates who do not pass this section of the examination, feedback will be provided.
For the measurement section of the examination, candidates must measure at least 85% of the
measurements within the predefined reference intervals to pass the examination. For candidates
that do not pass this section of the examination, candidates will be made aware of an overall
percentage mark and which measurements were not within the predefined confidence intervals.

The examination result will be given to each candidate within 14 days of the examination and an appeals process is available for any candidates who do not pass.

Guidelines provided
Two separate documents have been produced to detail the echocardiographic views and
echocardiographic measurements that will be assessed during the examination process. One
document contains the required echocardiographic views to be obtained in EACH dog (unless a
view is specifically stated to be in small breeds only). This document contains a brief description
of how each echocardiorgaphic view should be obtained. The second document contains the
required measurements for a typical breed screening examination and includes instructions on
how each measurement should be performed.

Disclaimer (guidelines)
These documents are not intended to be comprehensive instructions on how to perform a full
echocardiographic examination of the dog. It is expected that candidates will have experience of
echocardiography and an understanding of how 2D, M-mode and Doppler images are obtained.
Candidates are encouraged to consult standard texts for more detailed information on image
acquisition, and to spend time with experienced echocardiographers prior to sitting this
examination.