ctcourse.com

What It Is

CTCourse is an in-person continuing medical education and certification training program focused on cardiovascular CT. Its training center is located on the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center campus in Torrance, California. The courses are designed for cardiology and radiology professionals, covering pathways such as Level II, Level III, maintenance of competence, allied health professional training, and independent case review.

Core Courses and Experience

Its core selling points are intensive case-based training and hands-on, on-site practice. Both the Level II and Level III courses include 150 cases over 4.5 days; the maintenance of competence course includes 50 cases over 1 or 2 days; and the allied health professional course includes 50 cases over 3 days. The program emphasizes one workstation per participant, supports platforms such as GE, Philips, Vitrea, Vital, and TeraRecon, and includes supervised components covering patient and scanner setup, contrast injection, image acquisition, reconstruction, and post-processing. The official website clearly states that the courses consist of live cases and in-person lectures, with no recorded lectures, and provide 24-hour access to the training center, daily on-site readouts, and guidance from the director.

Certification and Faculty

The Level II course description states that it complies with ACC and SCCT guidelines and can qualify participants to sit for the Cardiovascular CT board examination. The courses are also labeled as SCCT Endorsed Courses and offer corresponding CME credits. In terms of faculty, Matthew J. Budoff is the primary instructor; he is a professor of medicine at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine and director of the cardiac CT program at Harbor-UCLA, with research focused on CAC and CT angiography. Other faculty members cover topics such as FFRct, TAVR, emergency chest pain, and peripheral CT.

Pricing and Drawbacks

The main website content does not disclose specific tuition fees, payment methods, refund policies, or a complete schedule. It only mentions that scholarships and fee reductions are available for fellows and residents, and that course fees are not eligible for device manufacturer education funds or training programs. Lack of information transparency is the main drawback.

Who It’s For and Access from China

This program is suitable for cardiologists, radiologists, fellows, and residents with a medical background who want to systematically obtain or maintain competency in cardiovascular CT. It is not suitable for general beginners in medical imaging or learners without a medical background. The main website content does not make it possible to determine access from China. Even if the website can be browsed, actual participation requires traveling to the United States, which involves visas, travel arrangements, and compatibility with local certification requirements.