Training bronchoscopists for the new era.

ABSTRACT

Gustav Killian introduced bronchoscopy a little more than a century ago. At that time, the only way others could learn to perform bronchoscopy was by one-on-one tutoring, using a rigid bronchoscope with no side portals and no imaging devices such as a television camera and monitor. One-on-one teaching remains an integral part of learning how to perform bronchoscopy well, but many new technologies have emerged that make it far less labor intensive to train bronchoscopists. This article focuses on the training of bronchoscopists for the new era.