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Article History

Received: 7 January 2026

Accepted: 17 March 2026

First Online: 19 March 2026

Declarations

:

: A researcher from our team visited each classroom to explain the goals and procedures of the study and provided each student with an information sheet and an informed consent form. Each participant was assigned a randomised identification number that was used to record pseudonymised echocardiographic videos. The study protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of the UNED on October 31st, 2023. A waiver of parental consent was granted by this committee, given that echocardiography is a non-invasive and innocuous procedure with no associated risk. It is generally accepted that children aged 10 years and above are competent to provide consent for interventions with high benefit and low risk [20]. In our study, those who wished to be examined came to the examination room where two female cardiologists were doing the echocardiograms. No one supervised which students went to the room and which did not, so participation was entirely voluntary.

: Not applicable.

: The authors declare no competing interests.