Tag Archives: POCUS

The Democratization of Point-of-Care Ultrasound

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The subtle sound of a distant explosion rang out. We barely flinched, numb to the sound that was a near-daily occurrence at our remote outpost in war-torn Afghanistan in 2005. Minutes later, a fast-approaching Humvee suggested that this time, something was amiss. The sight of a bloodied soldier draped over the vehicle’s hood provided confirmation.

CPT Jonathan Monti, left, and Lt. Col. Robert Craig, in the army physical training shirt, treat a trauma casualty at Forward Operating Base Ripley in 20005.

As we scrambled to prepare our dusty, sparsely equipped treatment tent, casualties poured through the door. A young Afghan man, triaged as minimally injured, lay in front of me, peppered from head to toe with small shrapnel wounds. His wounds were indeed benign-appearing, as his triage category suggested, but penetrating wounds can be deceptive. I struggled to gauge whether his lack of responsiveness to my questions was due to our language barrier, or something more sinister like blunt or penetrating head trauma. His primary survey was otherwise unremarkable…nosignificant external hemorrhage, airway intact without labored breathing. His blood pressure was borderline low, not an uncommon finding in the thin/healthy. 

I dusted off the nearby SonoSite 180, now widely considered to be the first portable ultrasound device of its kind. Most of its knobs were still foreign to me, and my inexperienced eyes struggled to interpret the grainy images. His belly and lungs appeared unremarkable, but scanning through his subxiphoid region, the black stripe encircling his heart jumped out at me, inconsistent with my already-anchoring bias of a traumatic brain injury, but consistent with the images I had only seen in Ma and Mateer’s landmark text.

I quickly called the surgeon, whose experience with the device barely surpassed my own. After a quick look at both the machine and text, he commanded his team to prep the operating suite, an equally dusty, adjacent tent. Minutes later, the surgeon’s skillful incision of the patient’s pericardium evacuated the now-tamponading bloody effusion, revealing the tiny piece of shrapnel embedded within the patient’s right ventricular wall and saving the patient’s life.

On that day, the humbling and lifesaving power of point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) was revealed to me. As a junior clinician with limited trauma experience, I had no formal ultrasound training, mentorship, or experience. Yet this machine, when coupled with only a book, and the desire to learn, allowed me the opportunity to overcome the shortcomings of my physical exam skills, my resource constraints, and my cognitive bias, and the mistriage of another, to ensure a patient received the timely and definitive care he deserved. In the decade or so since, I have been fortunate to serve my patients while under the tutelage of several POCUS experts whose altruistic and thoughtful mentorship allowed me the opportunity to cultivate my passion for this powerful tool, while also imparting the nuances and limitations of POCUS, frequently leading me back to a common question:

“How can we best harness the full power of POCUS?”

There is a rapidly growing body of evidence that suggests that clinicians of various skill levels can effectively employ focused POCUS applications with minimal training. Though not without risk, POCUS is no different from other clinical skills; performed with variable competency regardless of profession, specialty, or scope of practice. Some will evoke the mantra of “a fool with a tool is still a fool,” which may certainly be true, but it is unfair to assume that foolhardiness is necessarily bound by profession, experience, or even breadth/depth of training.  

The notion that POCUS can/should only be monolithically employed by a limited number of broadly/extensively trained physicians may be yet another example of the monoculture of thought that continues to plague our healthcare system. Certainly, any diagnostic testing should be performed thoughtfully; but do we limit who can use the stethoscope, or order a CBC, based upon title or his/her knowledge of Bayesian principles, Fagan’s nomogram, or pre/post-test probabilities and test-characteristics? Do all successful clinicians adhere to these principles with each and every test they order? Are there other factors to consider when ordering diagnostic testing, particularly in the resource-constrained areas where POCUS can have the greatest impact?

Until POCUS is adaptably and appropriately employed by all those who provide care, regardless of practice setting and scope, its full benefit and potential, especially to those living in medically underserved areas, cannot be realized. Some will inevitably oppose this concept, citing concerns with expertise, patient safety, documentation, reimbursement, etc. Ironically, it is these same arguments that emergency physicians faced 2 decades ago before successfully overcoming significant resistance to fully integrate POCUS into emergency medicine practice.

POCUS leaders are uniquely poised to best mitigate the risks associated with POCUS use through the provision of expanded training opportunities that are well-crafted, appropriately focused, and variably commensurate with clinicians’ skills, cognition, practice setting, and scope. Some of our most innovative POCUS educators are already doing so, whether by incorporating POCUS into the physical exam, or training nurses to perform diagnostic ultrasound, or training medics to employ ultrasound in austere locations. The rise of artificial intelligence/machine learning is already reducing the training burden traditionally associated with POCUS.

POCUS is a rare technological tool; one that is portable, versatile, and liked by both patients and clinicians alike. It can expedite diagnosis and care, improve the accuracy of our physical exam, and help us overcome our own anchoring bias while reducing the risk of procedural error, healthcare cost, and iatrogenic radiation exposure. Though it may not impact a majority of patients, for those it does, that impact is often significant. But the most uniquely promising characteristic of POCUS that we should all embrace is its ability to bring better-informed clinicians of any ilk, back to the bedside where they belong, wherever those in need of care may be.


Do you believe the democratization of point-of-care ultrasound can enhance patient care? Share with us your thoughts or your efforts to do so: comment below, or, AIUM members, continue the conversation on Connect, the AIUM’s online community.

Dedicated to the memory of CPT Jeremy A. Chandler, 1st BN, 3rd Special Forces Group, whose life was lost while bravely serving his country on that fateful day, August11th, 2005, in Tarin Kowt, Afghanistan.
https://www.greenberetfoundation.org/memorial/jeremy-a-chandler/

Jonathan Monti, PA-C, RDMS, is an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine PA Studies at Baylor University and president of the Society of Point-of-Care Ultrasound (SPOCUS). He is currently conducting research on the unconventional employment of ultrasound in the U.S. Armed Forces as an employee of the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine.

Teaching Point-of-Care Ultrasound

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Ultrasonography (US) is now used in some fashion by most specialties, and in graduate medical education, performing a US examination is now a routine expectation in the fields of emergency medicine, surgical critical care, diagnostic radiology, pulmonology, and gynecology. The American Medical Association has confirmed that physician‐performed US is within the scope of practice of appropriately trained physicians and recommend that training and education standards be developed by individual medical specialties.

In light of its clinical and education utility, it is reasonable to expect that US would be taught during medical school. Some national and international bodies, including the AIUM, have proposed curricula for medical students. While its level of use is variable, several schools have described integrated US into undergraduate medical education. Several studies have shown that students are able to and want to learn point-of-care US (POCUS) in medical school. Let’s review some tips for engaging medical students while teaching POCUS.

1. Hands-on time

Allow the medical student to have hands on the probe as much as possible. Limit lecture time to only that which must be done in lecture format. Make sure group learning time is done in small groups with maximal time for each student to use the probe. Give them time to work through different positions and views to help identify windows and quality images. Use your verbal commands to direct them instead of taking the probe. If you are going to take the probe, put your hand over theirs.

2. Engage the student

Find a use for ultrasound that is relevant to the student’s specialty of choice. Most specialties now have some use for ultrasound. IF you cannot identify a use for ultrasound in the specialty of choice, consider teaching general skills like US-guided IV insertion. Describe how US was or would have been useful during residency.

3. Make it fun

Use simulation liberally. Consider having a game or competition (see Sono-games, SonoSlam, or other similar competitions for potential ideas). Multiple homemade procedural models have been described and are inexpensive. Medical students, in general, love practicing procedures and are mostly competitive by nature. There are several ways for the more experienced student to improve their US skills in a fun manner. Some ideas include identifying inanimate objects blindly that are immersed in water, a competition like fastest FAST exam, or making a procedural simulation competition.

4. Short and sweet

Keep sessions engaging by spreading practice out over time. Again, keep lectures as brief and need-to-know as possible. Most medical students will only need a brief physics review and do not, for example, need to know the Nyquist limit. They need to know how to answer focused questions with ultrasound. Students will lose interest if doing the same exam over many hours. Consider spreading sessions, especially image review sessions, out to 1 hour or less over several days. Intersperse different types of ultrasound (e.g., abdominal, cardiac, pulmonary, vascular) within the same session to keep students engaged.

5. Start early

Expose students to US early on in medical school. Consider adding it to anatomy or physiology classes while students are still in their pre-clinical years. If you do not have the swing to add a formal session to preclinical years, consider having voluntary “anatomy review” sessions using US. Try to get enough interest to start an interest group for students that is student-run. This will allow them to take some of the responsibility for scheduling and promoting events and you can focus on what you do best, teaching US.

Ultrasonography is coming to medical education and will continue to grow in use. While students going into specialties like radiology and emergency medicine may instantly be engaged in US teaching, consider ways to engage other students. There is a role for US in nearly every specialty.

Sonographers can and should play a key role in teaching medical students techniques for US. Sonographers perform these exams every day for many years. They have tricks for obtaining quality images and many sonographers are also quite good at interpreting exams, as well.

Embrace medical students and engage them with your passion for ultrasound. Show them how it will be helpful to them in the future. Take an active role in medical student education and watch the use of ultrasonography in medical practice continue to grow.



Do you have suggestions for teaching POCUS to medical students? Comment below, or, AIUM members, continue the conversation on Connect, the AIUM’s online community.

Joshua J Davis, MD, is an Emergency Medicine Resident at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.

Ultrasound at the Zoo

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Zoo medicine is quite the paradox. In one way, zoo veterinarians are specialists in that what we do daily; it is very unique and specialized and there are few licensed veterinarians that are employed as full-time clinicians in zoological parks. On the contrary, zoo veterinarians are also the ultimate general practitioners as our patients include everything from invertebrates to great apes and elephants (and all life forms in-between)… and for this wide variety of patients, we attempt to be their pediatrician, surgeon, dermatologist, cardiologist, radiologist, etc. I am fortunate to be the Senior Staff Veterinarian at the Louisville Zoo in Louisville, Kentucky.

In terms of imaging modalities, most zoo hospitals are equipped with plain radiography (film or digital) and have some ultrasound capabilities. A few of the larger zoos in the country have computed tomography (CT) in their on-site hospitals. In Louisville, when one of our patients requires advanced imaging, we make arrangements with local facilities with CT or MRI capabilities.

For ultrasound imaging, we have a portable Sonosite M-Turbo unit with both a curvilinear, 5-2 MHz transducer for primarily transabdominal imaging, and a linear array, 10-5 MHz transducer for primarily transrectal imaging. In addition, we have several donated large rolling Phillips Sonos units with an assortment of probes for both echocardiography and transabdominal imaging. One remains in the Zoo’s Animal Health Center and others are stored and used in animal areas for pregnancy diagnosis, echocardiograms on awake gorillas (through the mesh barrier), or just training/conditioning animals for awake ultrasound exams.

Zoo animals may present unique challenges when ultrasound imaging transcutaneously. In the case of fish and amphibians, imaging through a water bath (without even touching the patient!) can be very effective and noninvasive. The rough scaly skin of some reptiles makes a warm water bath similarly effective as a conductive medium for imaging snakes and lizards. Birds are not often examined via ultrasound because of the extensive respiratory (air sac) system they possess that interferes with the sound waves. For mammals, different species present different challenges. Many mammal species are thickly furred necessitating clipping of hair to establish good contact between the transducer and the skin. For transabdominal imaging, some species are very gassy (hippos, gorillas), which may complicate diagnostic imaging. Large or dangerous mammals that are examined awake via training need to be conditioned to present the body part of interest (chest, abdomen) at the barrier mesh and trust their trainer/keeper to allow contact with the probe. Often the greatest hurdle is habituating the animal to the ultrasound gel! When performing transabdominal imaging in our pregnant African elephant cow, rather than go through gallons of ultrasound gel smeared on her flank to fill in all the cracks and crevices in her thick skin, we run water from a hose just above wherever the transducer is placed.

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As general practitioners, zoo veterinarians have variable amounts of training in ultrasonography. We strive to do the best we can and are constantly learning, but the high variability in our daily tasks makes becoming an expert in ultrasound very difficult. So “it takes a village,” and we will regularly utilize specialists in our community to assist us in providing the best medical care for our patients. If I have a zebra or related species that requires a reproductive ultrasound exam, we will reach out to a local equine veterinarian that can apply their expertise in horses to a related species. Great apes have a high incidence of heart disease so whenever a gorilla or orangutan is anesthetized for an exam, part of the comprehensive care they receive is an echocardiogram by a human sonographer. Female great apes may get attention from our volunteer gynecologic sonographer as part of a reproductive evaluation. If the ultrasound exam is on a sea lion, wolf, or bear, I may contact a veterinary radiologist or veterinary internist competent in ultrasonography to assist.

In summary, ultrasonography represents a valuable, noninvasive, diagnostic tool for the zoo veterinarian.

Have you ever performed an ultrasound examination at a zoo? What was your experience? Comment below, or, AIUM members, continue the conversation on Connect, the AIUM’s online community. 

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Zoli Gyimesi, DVM, is the Senior Veterinarian at the Louisville Zoo in Louisville, Kentucky.

Evidence-Based Sonology: Changing the Practice of POCUS

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Let’s say you are working in a busy emergency department. You get a call that a patient is being brought in by ambulance in cardiac arrest. You quickly assemble your team, assign roles, and discuss the plan—just in time for the patient to arrive. A paramedic performs one-arm compressions on an elderly man, pale yellow–his mouth stented open with a laryngeal mask airway. Your swarm of providers descends upon the patient, performing their jobs simultaneously in perfect concert. Airway, ventilations, rhythm checks, epinephrine: everything is running smoothly, but the patient is in pulseless electrical activity. During a rhythm check, someone looks at the heart with ultrasound. You glance at the screen and see a blurry subcostal cardiac view. You can barely make out the pericardium, but you see a weak contraction of the ventricles; there’s still no pulse. Compressions are quickly resumed. You consider all of the information – what are the chances this patient will survive? Should we keep going? Should I place a transesophageal probe? Wait, do I even have one of those?! Is ultrasound enough evidence to determine if further efforts are futile? Amidst your thoughts you hear a loud and eager call out: “I got a pulse!”. The team buzzes again – blood pressure, electrocardiogram, labs, vasopressors, cooling. You wonder, “Why did I even do that ultrasound? Is there any evidence it helps?”.

The difficulty encountered in this scenario is one that occurs countless times across the world’s hospitals each day. Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) has exploded off the shelves over the past decade. It has been borrowed from the hands of sonographers and cardiologists and made available to anyone who can afford a machine (training course optional). Overall, this has been a remarkably positive movement. Safer procedures, faster diagnoses, and sometimes a replacement for more potentially harmful imaging modalities. However, it is not without dangers. Those who use it aren’t always looking for the evidence for POCUS, as if it is somehow outside of the requirement for evidence. Others might not use this modality when it is indicated, ignoring the evidence that supports the use of POCUS. Both practices are unsafe. This is a big problem…but it’s one we can fix with the concept of evidence-based sonology.

Practicing based on the best available evidence has been a cornerstone of medicine since its advent; however, only more recently has it seen a visible resurgence. Now that it is in vogue there are physicians who are evidence-based medicine (EBM) specialists, there are EBM blogs and EBM courses. We teach our learners EBM principles and practices. So why has POCUS almost eluded this trend? Why would the evidence for POCUS not be examined with the same perspicacity as resuscitative endovascular balloon occlusion of the aorta (REBOA) in the emergency department, for example? I have some theories. In the early days, POCUS was practiced by a few champions with a dream who understood how POCUS could revolutionize practice. However, ultrasound equipment was not yet widely available. This limited initial studies to case reports and case series on new uses, touting primarily theoretical benefits to patients. As anyone who has used ultrasound knows, this tool holds a powerful allure by allowing its user to magically look into the body and directly visualize physiology and pathology. It is easy to imagine that after a while you build up a confidence; when you see something it must really be there. In a sense, the rapid outbreak of ultrasound use and the ever-expanding list of applications outran the available evidence basis.

A review of a subset of ultrasound-related abstracts showed that there is now increasing research, although most of it would be classified as quasi-experimental, which may not be enough to inform practice.1 But the times, they are a’ changin’. Now ultrasound is ubiquitous, at least at most academic centers, in emergency departments, ICUs, and other places that care for the acutely ill. Therefore, the body of literature is growing, and now we just have to pay attention to it. Enter evidence-based sonology (EBS).

Your first question is probably – sonology? What’s that? Did he just misspell sonography? No. Sonology is a term that implies an expertise in the entire spectrum of POCUS. Not only the acquisition (the “-graphy”) of the images, but additionally the indications for performing it, the interpretation, and the subsequent appropriate medical decision making.2 This is important because the evidence for this modality could fall apart at any one of these levels, so practitioners must be attuned to the hurdles of each step. Your second question probably is, isn’t this just EBM? Of course! But it is something that we could improve, and therefore we need to rebrand this practice to continue teaching it as a concept to anyone that uses POCUS. There are several reasons why this is important. As POCUS becomes more integrated into medical practice, it is important that we are all on the same page. Research helps us understand the benefits and limits of this tool for each application. It helps us to know the best time to use the tool, how accurate it is when we use it, how it affects patients when we use it, and potential harms associated with it.EBS Graphic

So where do we go from here? There are 3 main ways you can practice EBS:

  1. Know the evidence
  2. Model the evidence
  3. Make the evidence (AKA perform research)

As far as knowing the evidence, this is nothing new for anyone practicing in a medical field. You know how to get a hold of journals. These days it’s easier than ever. You can even use social media, podcasts, and blogs to further distill the information for you. Just make sure you read the original evidence yourself and develop your own decisions about how it will change your practice. Secondly, you have to actually implement what you learn. Obviously, not all research articles are practice-changing, but many will at least add something to your understanding of POCUS in clinical practice. For example, in the aforementioned case of cardiac arrest, recent literature could have informed many steps of using POCUS. Cardiac activity on ultrasound has an odds ratio of 3.6 for survival to admission.3 Patient’s in PEA with cardiac activity on POCUS might benefit from continuous adrenergics instead of standard ACLS.4 Furthermore, an understanding that there is the risk of misdiagnosis of cardiac standstill and the risk of delaying chest compressions, might make you pay closer attention to these details during use of POCUS.5,6 Practicing with this evidence is not only the safest practice, but for those at teaching institutions, it can help create a newer generation of EBS followers. Lastly, make the evidence. Do the research. If you have a question, go find the answer. Collaboration is easier now that ultrasound is more widespread, as is evidenced by more multi-center trials.7-9 Talk about research ideas at national meetings and consider research groups for important questions.

There is now a greater evidence basis for POCUS than ever before. No longer are we restricted to a few case reports and our own intuition. We have randomized controlled trials; we have meta-analyses; we have real patient-centered outcomes. Know the evidence, model the evidence, and make the evidence. These are simple practices that we need to support for the sake of our patients. Now it’s up to you. Will you start practicing EBS? Think of creative ways to begin promoting this concept today.

References:

  1. Prats MI, Bahner DP, Panchal AR, et al. Documenting the growth of ultrasound research in emergency medicine through a bibliometric analysis of accepted academic conference abstracts. [published online ahead of print April 15, 2018]. J Ultrasound Med. doi.org/10.1002/jum.14634.
  2. Bahner DP, Hughes D, Royall NA. I-AIM: a novel model for teaching and performing focused sonography. J Ultrasound Med. 2012; 31:295–300.
  3. Gaspari R, Weekes A, Adhikari S, et al. Emergency department point-of-care ultrasound in out-of-hospital and in-ED cardiac arrest. Resuscitation. 2016; 109:33–39.
  4. Gaspari R, Weekes A, Adhikari S, et al. A retrospective study of pulseless electrical activity, bedside ultrasound identifies interventions during resuscitation associated with improved survival to hospital admission. A REASON Study. Resuscitation. 2017; 120:103–107.
  5. Huis In ‘t Veld MA, Allison MG, Bostick DS, et al. Ultrasound use during cardiopulmonary resuscitation is associated with delays in chest compressions. Resuscitation. 2017; 119:95–98.
  6. Hu K, Gupta N, Teran F, Saul T, Nelson BP, Andrus P. Variability in Interpretation of Cardiac Standstill Among Physician Sonographers. Ann Emerg Med. 2018; 71:193–198.
  7. Smith-Bindman R, Aubin C, Bailitz J, et al. Ultrasonography versus computed tomography for suspected nephrolithiasis. N Engl J Med. 2014; 371:1100–1110.
  8. Atkinson PR, Milne J, Diegelmann L, et al. Does point-of-care ultrasonography improve clinical outcomes in emergency department patients with undifferentiated hypotension? An International Randomized Controlled Trial From the SHoC-ED Investigators. Ann Emerg Med. 2018; 72:478–489.
  9. Gaspari R, Weekes A, Adhikari S, et al. Emergency department point-of-care ultrasound in out-of-hospital and in-ED cardiac arrest. Resuscitation. 2016; 109:33–39.

Do you already practice evidence-based sonology? If not, will you start?  Comment below, or, AIUM members, continue the conversation on Connect, the AIUM’s online community. 

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Michael Prats, MD, is currently Assistant Ultrasound Director and Director of Ultrasound Research in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. He is the founder of the Ultrasound G.E.L. Podcast that reviews recent articles in point of care ultrasound. Follow him on Twitter by his handle @PratsEM or visit ultrasoundgel.org.

Clinical Tests Worldwide

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“A pregnancy test and a dip urine,” Dr. St. Louis responded. “Wow!” I replied in surprise. Having completed a fellowship in global health, I had learned that testing was severely limited in resource-limited settings, particularly outside of normal business hours. This was still impressive. We had just been discussing how things were going with his new job at Princess Alice Hospital and what tests were available overnight in his workplace that is located in the eastern mountains of Grenada. During weekday daytime hours, imaging is limited to plain film x-ray. Occasionally, there is an ultrasound technician also available. If desperate, the technicians can be called in from home. All other tests: blood, urine, CSF, must be batched and sent by car via a winding, serpiginous road over a mountain to the capital. If they’re lucky, you may get the test result in about 6 hours; however, most take up to 12 hours. Most advanced imaging, CT and MRI, are only available in the private sector.

I first met Dr. Daniel St. Louis just a few weeks after beginning the Masters of Emergency Medicine program offered by the University of Guyana and started with the help of Emergency Medicine faculty and Vanderbilt University. With other emergency medicine colleagues, I had spent a lot of time helping him learn to perform, interpret, and apply point-of-care ultrasound studies during his training in the Accident and Emergency Department at Georgetown Public Hospital before he returned to his native island in the south Caribbean. Dr. St. Louis immediately saw the benefit of ultrasound during his training and requested every piece of material possible to be able to master sonography.

The care that Daniel and his colleagues provide with limited testing is really impressive. But of all tests that Dr. St. Louis could be equipped with while caring for a sick patient on an overnight shift, ultrasound is uniquely valuable. Bedside ultrasound doesn’t require a technician, it is reusable, it is versatile, it provides rapid diagnosis of many critical illnesses, and it provides the diagnosis to actionable diseases where lives hang in the balance of the minutes and hours ultrasound saves. There are more significant tests: a microscope and Giemsa stain in a malaria endemic zone or rapid HIV testing at the national public health level. But when I was standing in front of a child in shock from shrapnel wounds outside Mosul, Iraq, an ultrasound probe is what I want most.

As bedside ultrasound machines continue to become more portable and more affordable, the significance of bedside ultrasound will continue to grow. This is true in a large academic tertiary medical center, in regional access hospitals in Grenada, and in critical access health posts in the most remote regions of the globe. AIUM and its members are uniquely positioned to aid in providing equipment and, more importantly, providing education and techniques to help improve the quality of bedside ultrasound as one of the most important clinical tests worldwide. Will we be up for the challenge?

If you work in a resource-limited setting, how is ultrasound most useful for you? How have you seen ultrasound incorporated into medical care in other nations? Comment below or let us know on Twitter: @AIUM_Ultrasound.

Jordan Rupp, MD, RDMS, is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the Director for Global Sounds:  Ultrasound Development Project.  Read more about Global Sounds at www.globalsoundsproject.org or continue the conversation on Twitter:  @globalsounds_us.

Ultrasound Made Me the Doctor I Wanted to Be

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I didn’t come into medicine knowing much about what doctors really did. I also didn’t graduate my emergency medicine residency really believing point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) was all that useful. Maybe it’s just a fad, I remember thinking.Minardi, Joseph J.

There were two things I did come to enjoy about medicine: making interesting diagnoses and intervening in ways that helped patients. Those were the victories and they were always more satisfying when I got to do them as independently as possible. It was great to diagnose appendicitis with a CT scan, but I had to share at least some of the credit with the radiologist.

I remember sometimes being frustrated with the fragmentation of care in American medicine. Send the patient to another facility with these services, order this imaging study by this specialist, consult this specialist for this procedure, and so on.

A few cases early in my career really brought to light these frustrations.

One was a young woman who didn’t speak English who presented to our community hospital who appeared to have abdominal pain. It took hours after getting approval to call in a sonographer, consulting with the radiologist, and eventually calling in the gynecologist from home to take her to the operating room for her ruptured ectopic pregnancy. Hours went by while her condition worsened and I felt helpless, being uncertain about her diagnosis and relying on fragmented, incomplete information from others to make management decisions. Luckily, her youth allowed her to escape unscathed, but I was frustrated with what I didn’t know and couldn’t provide for her: a rapid, accurate diagnosis and quick definitive action.

In another case, a young boy was transferred to our tertiary care center for possible septic hip arthritis and waited nearly 24 hours to undergo more ED imaging, subspecialty consultation, then wait for the availability of the pediatric interventional radiologist to perform X-ray guided hip aspiration with procedural sedation. I remember again feeling helpless and seeing the hopelessness in the eyes of his parents after seeing so many doctors, spending so many hours far from home just waiting on someone to tell them what was wrong with their son and what was going to be done to help him.

After I was asked to lead POCUS education for our residency program and began to embrace it as a clinical tool, I encountered similar cases, but now with much more satisfying experiences for me as a physician, and hopefully, presumably for my patients. Now, I routinely hear stories from my residents and colleagues that go something like Hey Joe, check out this ectopic case, ED to OR in 20 minutes with bedside ultrasound. We have had cases of suspected hip arthritis where we were able to provide a diagnosis and care plan from the ED in 2–3 hours by performing bedside US-guided hip arthrocentesis. These and numerous other cases where diagnoses are made in minutes independently by the treating clinician have convinced me that POCUS can help improve healthcare. My colleagues and I have performed diagnostic and therapeutic procedures that we never would have considered attempting before we could competently use POCUS, allowing us to provide immediate care right where and when the patients needed it.

The “passing fad” of POCUS has allowed me to make medicine and being a doctor more into what I wanted it to be: seeing patients, giving them a diagnosis, decreasing the anxiety over uncertainty, and providing relief for their suffering. I trained and practiced without the advantages of ultrasound and I have seen the positive impact it can have not only on patients but also on the health care system and my job satisfaction as well. The advantages of more immediate, efficient diagnoses, better availability of advanced procedures can all be provided in a less fragmented, more cost-effective manner when treating clinicians are armed with and properly trained to use POCUS. There’s no way I would ever go back.

If you learned how to use ultrasound after you completed your original medical education, how did it affect your career? Comment below or let us know on Twitter: @AIUM_Ultrasound.

Joseph J. Minardi, MD, is Chief of Emergency and Clinical Ultrasound, and Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine and Medical Education at the West Virginia University School of Medicine.

The Future of Point-of-Care Ultrasound in Pediatric Emergency Medicine

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Pediatrics entices practitioners with its focus on treating illness in the youngest patients, for long-term outcomes of future growth and development. When I reflect on my own journey through Pediatrics and Pediatric Emergency Medicine, helping patients in real-time through providing the best quality care given limited information, drew me to Pediatric Emergency Medicine.

Lianne Profile FinalPediatric Emergency Medicine (PEM) focuses on providing acute care to patients from the newest newborns to teenagers. With this breadth of ages comes differing pathology, physiology, and of course differences in relative and absolute size. Integration of point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) into PEM practice offers the clinician an added tool to provide the best possible care. Children are ideal patients for POCUS scanning as they often have slimmer body habitus, fewer comorbidities, and there is increasing interest in limiting ionizing radiation amongst all patients, especially the very young.

POCUS offers direct visualization for procedures such as endotracheal tube airway confirmation, central-line insertion, and intravenous and intraosseous access. Utilizing this clinical adjunct allows for accuracy in nerve block administration, reducing the volume used of local anesthetic and decreasing the need for systemic sedation. Visualizing fractures following reduction and assessing joints and soft tissue infections prior to decision of incision and drainage or aspiration can all be achieved using POCUS.

Because our patients vary in size, optimizing planning prior to starting procedures can help to maximize success. Risk in pediatric procedures is heightened due to variable sizing, risking too-deep insertion of needles and endotracheal tubes. Direct visualization helps to support the provider in making safe choices.

Beyond procedures, POCUS allows PEM providers to optimize resuscitation, through real-time monitoring of volume status, cardiac function, and pulmonary edema. Reassessment throughout resuscitation adds additional information to vital signs and end-organ markers as patients are treated.

As machines become increasingly accurate at more portable sizes, and as cloud storage is increasingly popular among organizations, the future of POCUS offers providers along the care-continuum the opportunity to share information and images. My hope for the future of acute POCUS would be to have pre-hospital POCUS, emergency POCUS, consultative radiology imaging, and follow-up POCUS imaging in community clinics on an integrated system allowing for shared images and progressive monitoring for long-standing conditions.

The future of POCUS is bright as innovation and technology disruption move ultrasound outside of the walls of the hospital, placing transducers in the hands of those at the bedside from the helicopter to the remote health clinic. For countries such as Canada, increased portability means increasing access for those populations most at risk of health inequity, those living in the far North and remote regions of my country, who have limited access to urban care. POCUS with added portability and technological integration can help improve access, and shared decision making between urban centers and remote regions with patient safety and privacy as a priority.

I’m excited to see where POCUS integration moves in the course of the rest of my medical career, as I look forward to being an advocate for access and clinical education in addition to being an expert that maintains clinical accountability, safety, and privacy. The promotion of these critical pillars will help determine the success of the POCUS-empowered clinical experience.

Do you use point-of-care ultrasound in pediatric practice? If so, how has it helped you? Is there another medical field you think should use ultrasound more? Comment below or let us know on Twitter: @AIUM_Ultrasound.

Lianne McLean, MB BCh, BAO, FRCPC, is Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto; and Staff Physician and Chair of the Council of Informatics & Technology in the Division of Emergency Medicine at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada.

Training Beyond Discipline – Developing Devotion in Ultrasound

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Mathews Benji KA point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) revolution is unfolding before our eyes, forever changing the way we interact with patients. It started with a revolution in specialties such as emergency medicine and critical care, and now it has entered into my sphere with internal medicine and hospital medicine. I see this whenever I’m on clinical service. A 3rd year medical student talks about diffuse B-lines as we stop antibiotics and start diuretics on a patient with pulmonary edema; a 3rd year resident asks to look at a patient’s kidney with ultrasound as we manage undifferentiated acute kidney injury; nursing staff curiously looking on as a patient is shown their weak heart as goals of care are discussed.

At the same time, we in internal medicine and hospital medicine are living in a medical world filled with many challenges towards implementation of POCUS. Though there are many devices in the emergency rooms and some in the critical care wards, there are not many in the inpatient wards nor in the clinics. Though numerous workshops and courses abound in POCUS, many attendees do not continue to use this skillset after training. Those that received initial training find it too challenging to discipline themselves to continue to scan.

It is that latter sentiment that caught my attention this last year. The concept of discipline and viewing POCUS through its lens. A quote by Luciano Pavarotti comes to mind,

“People think I’m disciplined. It is not discipline. It is devotion. There is a great difference.”

I’ve often heard the sentiments:

“It is so hard to learn POCUS, how do you find the time for it on a busy clinical service to get images?”

“I find it hard to set aside time during my non-clinical work days as other work and life piles up.”

I’m not sure about you, but the word discipline does not often carry an inspirational tone to it. There is a sense of drudgery, lack of passion surrounding the word. As an ultrasound director, that is the farthest from what I want my learners to experience with POCUS.

When I looked up the word discipline in the Oxford Dictionary there it was as well:

dis·ci·pline
noun
1.
the practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behavior, using punishment to correct disobedience.
“a lack of proper parental and school discipline”

2.
a branch of knowledge, typically one studied in higher education.
“sociology is a fairly new discipline”

Is it #1 that we were aiming for? Or at the very least, is that what people are sensing? Hopefully, we’re not using punishment to correct disobedience. The Pavorotti quote struck a chord in me. As a contrast to discipline, we have devotion.

The word “devotion” is defined by Oxford Dictionary as follows:

de·vo·tion
noun
1.  love, loyalty, or enthusiasm for a person, activity, or cause.
“Eleanor’s devotion to her husband”
synonyms: loyalty, faithfulness, fidelity, constancy, commitment, adherence, allegiance, dedication; More

•  religious worship or observance.
“the order’s aim was to live a life of devotion”
synonyms: devoutness, piety, religiousness, spirituality, godliness, holiness, sanctity
“a life of devotion”

•  prayers or religious observances.
plural noun: devotions
synonyms: religious worship, worship, religious observance

Devotion does have some concepts borne from religion or worship but that doesn’t make it an irrelevant word for the POCUS learner or teacher. The first definition of love, loyalty, or enthusiasm captures the essence of what most of us are hoping POCUS to be for our learners. As my good friend and POCUS enthusiast, Dr. Gordy Johnson, from Portland, Oregon, says, we need to remember “our first kiss.” What was the moment that grasped us with POCUS?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not completely opposed to the word discipline, but it moves beyond that if we’re going to develop fully devoted clinicians in the realm of bedside ultrasound. Those that are equipped with the cognitive elements know when POCUS should be used, why it should be used, how to acquire images, and then how to clinically integrate it.

This post was originally intended as a follow-up of the AIUM webinar on the Comprehensive Hospitalist Assessment & Mentorship with Portfolios (CHAMP) Ultrasound Program with hopes to continue the conversation surrounding what makes for an effective training program. The program involved online modules, an in-person course with assessments, portfolio development, refresher training, and final assessments. The key lesson we have learned is that longitudinal training with deliberate practice of POCUS skills with individualized performance feedback is critical for skill acquisition. However, the intangible pieces of how people continued to scan was developing an enthusiasm and love surrounding ultrasound by seeing its impact in the marketplace. As they were continuing to scan, their patients, their students, the many nursing staff were partnering in a stronger way with this diagnostic powerhouse in their hands.

With all this, I cannot help but be optimistic when I see the commitment of many in the POCUS movement already. I would urge all of us to evaluate how we develop devotion in ultrasound, how to tap into the dynamism of the POCUS movement coming up the pipeline with our medical students and residents. They have the potential to disrupt inertia and be an impactful force to integrate POCUS more into internal medicine and hospital medicine.

If you are an ultrasound educator, how do you inspire devotion? What are some of your best practices surrounding training in POCUS? Which do you think is most important: discipline or devotion? Comment below or let us know on Twitter: @AIUM_Ultrasound.

Benji K. Mathews, MD, FACP, SFHM, is the Ultrasound Director of the Department of Hospital Medicine at HealthPartners in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Interest in Interest Groups

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Ultrasound in medical education is a powerful idea whose time has come. With its value in the clinical setting being increasingly recognized, leaders of a point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) movement are making a strong case for introducing ultrasound early in medical training. Not only is it a useful educational tool to illustrate living anatomy and physiology, but it is also an important clinical skill- guiding procedure, improving diagnostic accuracy, and facilitating radiation-free disease monitoring. As the list of POCUS applications grows exponentially across specialties, I believe that to maximize the potential impact, it is vital to introduce this skillset early during the pleuripotent stem cell phase of a young doctor’s career.

Wagner

Looking around, there are signs this movement is here to stay. Ten years after the first medical schools began integrating ultrasound into the curriculum, an AAMC report of US and Canadian schools stated that at least 101 offered some form of ultrasound education, with the majority including it into the first 2 years of the curriculum. If one visits the AIUM medical education portal (http://meded.aium.org/home), 77 medical schools list a faculty contact person involved with ultrasound curriculum development and integration.

It should be noted that the depth of content varies from school to school, as not all institutions value ultrasound to the same degree. Recommendations on core clinical ultrasound milestones for medical students have been published and results from a forthcoming international consensus conference will help improve standardization, though there will likely be much variability until it is required by LCME or included on board exams.

It is during this time of transition that the importance of ultrasound interest groups (USIGs) cannot be understated. USIGs provide a wider degree of flexibility often not possible within a formal curriculum, quickly adapting for changes not only for meeting times and group sizes but also topics and teaching strategies. Indeed, for schools without a formal ultrasound curriculum, it is often how one gets started. For ultrasound faculty, USIGs provide fertile ground for experimenting with new teaching ideas and cultivating both student and faculty enthusiasm for POCUS at one’s institution. For senior students, USIGs can provide opportunities to participate in research projects, serve as near-peer instructors, and participate at regional and international meetings. The spread of local, student-run Ultrafest symposiums is a testament to the power ultrasound has to draw people in and the impact students can have beyond their own institution. The AIUM National USIG (http://www.nationalusig.com/) provides a nice resource for further collaboration while student competitions like AIUM’s Sonoslam or SUSME’s Ultrasound World Cup showcase ultrasound talent and teamwork in an anti-burnout, fun environment. I have no doubt that some of these exceptionally motivated students will become future leaders in the field, as some already have (http://www.sonomojo.org/).

While many of these students will pursue and jumpstart their careers in Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, students from varying backgrounds and interests are needed in USIGs. The frontier of Primary Care ultrasound is wide open and may become crucial as we see more emphasis on population medicine and cost containment as opposed to fee-for-service models. With the exception of in the ER, the utilization of pediatric ultrasound has been surprisingly lagging and more POCUS champions are certainly needed here. In addition, the early exposure to POCUS can increase comfort with ultrasound and help drive novel developments by future specialists. Some lesser-known potential examples include advancing work already underway: gastric ultrasound for aspiration risk by anesthesiologists, sinusitis and tonsillar abscess drainage for ENTs, diagnosing and setting fractures for orthopedists, noninvasively measuring intracranial pressure by ophthalmologists and neurologists, and detecting melanoma metastasis by dermatologists. Until it is more widespread, a skillset in POCUS can be a helpful way to distinguish oneself in an application process and provides an excellent academic niche. After medical school, some USIG students will go on to form ultrasound interest groups in their specialty organizations, going beyond carving out a special area of interest for themselves and helping to advance the field and shape future policies.

Similar to other enriching things like viewing art and discussing philosophy, I believe all students should be exposed to ultrasound and given the opportunity to learn this skill. While I feel strongly that ultrasound should be a mandatory component of an undergraduate curriculum, I also recognize that not all will enjoy and excel in it, and many will settle for nothing more than the bare minimum. However, I believe the USIGs help us to motivate and empower those few individuals with the passion and grit to really help propel this movement forward and show the world what is possible. This is truly an exciting time. I hope you will join us.

Ultrafest

Are you a member of an ultrasound interest group? Has it improved your skill set? Comment below or let us know on Twitter: @AIUM_Ultrasound.

Michael Wagner, MD, FACP, RDMS, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine in Columbia. There he serves as the Director of Internal Medicine Ultrasound Education for the residency program, Assistant Director of Physical Diagnosis for the undergraduate curriculum, and faculty advisor to the student ultrasound interest group. You can view his 2017 talk for the USCSOM USIG here (https://youtu.be/FfO7SXRwjLY) and an AIUM webinar with Janice Boughton on a pocket ultrasound physical exam here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywuIeoEfG1I).

Patient Zero

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My rock, my reminder, my inspiration, my failure

Soucy

Case 1
It was fall 2009 and early in my second year of residency. Having spent multiple months off service, I was excited to get back into the swing of emergency care in “critical” bay. The patient was a 44-year-old male presenting with syncope. Admittedly, he was an alcoholic who was an on-the-wagon, off-the-wagon type. His trip to the ED found him off the wagon for several weeks, deeply depressed, and outwardly self-neglected.

His story was not unfamiliar to the ED; lots of alcohol without eating or drinking much else and lots of time on the couch. Today, he got up to get something from the fridge but found himself at the bottom of a set of stairs. A housemate was kind enough to call EMS when it took more than a few minutes for him to wake up. He didn’t remember much and complained of a headache, some rib pain, and significant fatigue getting around the house recently.

It was early morning so I had a bit more time than usual to chitchat. He wore a Minnesota Twins jersey. Though I was from the northeast, I told him how I was a big Kirby Puckett fan growing up, which segued into discussion about their current season, game soon-to-be in progress, and the Vikings acquisition of Farve. “Who would have thought,” he said; “No kidding,” I reaffirmed. Our conversation was natural, comfortable, and enjoyable. Before I left the room, I recognized his oxygen saturation at 91% and blood pressure had dropped to systolics in the 90s but recovered into the low 100s.

All the usual suspects were considered but we thought his low saturations (sats) were most likely due to his smoking history and low blood pressure due to dehydration. Fluids and albuterol went in, labs came back, and time ticked by. Acute renal insufficiency, hyponatremia, hypomagnesemia, and normal chest x-ray without any improvement in vitals despite our interventions. Radiology called and said they could do the CT of the head but chest with contrast would have to wait until after fluids and a creatinine recheck. Critical bay became busy and his clock continued to tick.

I was surprised by how quickly my body reacted to the “code blue in CT” called out overhead. I didn’t know why I knew it was him, but I did. As my body turned the corner to CT, my mind was unprepared to absorb what I saw. His head and neck had turned a deep unnatural blue. He was confused and was asking for help. In between explaining that his heart had briefly stopped and quickly moving him from the scanner, a wide-eyed radiology resident appeared in the doorway, “saddle PE” (pulmonary embolism).

We rolled quickly. Sats and blood pressure were down, heart rate was up—mine included. I assured him everything was going to be okay and he believed me. “Wake me up when the Twins score doc,” he said with a smile. Intubation was smooth as lytics were mobilized.

With cardiothoracic surgery at the bedside, his tachycardia devolved into PEA (pulseless electrical activity). I ran the code while thoracics prepped ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation). Both groins were inaccessible and I was told we would do an ED thoracotomy. “Ready,” the surgeon said. “Yes,” I said confidently, not knowing what would happen next. The clamshell and cannulation were smoother and quicker than I could have imagined. The machine worked, but his body didn’t.

I still critique my conversation with his mother. It was my first time breaking bad news alone. I was inexperienced and unpolished, but honest and raw. We cried together. I wish I could have been better for him and for his mother.

Case 2
Several months and various rotations passed, including ED ultrasound, which I took a liking to. I again found myself in “critical” working with one of my favorite attendings. EMS patch was for a 78-year-old female being brought in from her rehab facility hypotensive, hypoxic, tachypnic, and ill appearing. The report did not disappoint. The patient was postoperative day 5 from a transabdominal hysterectomy for leiomyomas. The patient was doing well until the day before presentation when she felt fatigued and feverish and then in the morning when she felt shortness of breath and extreme fatigue, which had progressed. She looked like she might die any second.

My attending listened to the reports, watched my exam, and performed his own. “So, what do you think?” I hesitated. Literally any organ system or combination of systems could be failing. A trip down the wrong diagnostic or therapeutic pathway could lead to delay, decompensation, and death. I was relieved when he told me to prepare for a central line so we could start pressors and antibiotics for her septic shock. It was clear to me that she was dying and I did not know the etiology, but my veteran attending did.

The patient was sterilely prepped and ultrasound placed on the neck. The internal jugular (IJ) was plump, very plump, the plumpest IJ I had ever seen. “Cake,” I thought. Simultaneously it then dawned on me that physiologically this wonderfully plump IJ did not make sense in septic shock. I consulted my attending and given the patients worsening cardiovascular collapse despite fluid resuscitation, we proceeded.

As I secured the sutures, I ran through the types of shock, differential for each, and ways I could figure it out at the bedside. Antibiotics started and I pulled up to the bedside with the ultrasound. I was suspicious for an obstructive process; however, due to the patient’s postoperative status I performed the FAST (focused assessment with sonography for trauma) exam. “Negative belly,” I thought to myself as I quickly moved to the patients left chest. The focused cardiac exam quickly aligned all the puzzle pieces. I personally had never seen acute right ventricular strain at the bedside but the septal D-ing of her hyperdynamic heart on parasternal short and apical 4 was irrefutable.

My attending agreed and we changed our trajectory. Instead of MICU (Medical Intensive Care Unit) admission, antibiotics, fluids, and pressors, ultrasound indicated the patient needed something different. Given her recent extensive operation, an emergent CT was performed showing saddle embolus. In coordination with OB/GYN and critical care, the patient received thrombolytics. 2 weeks later, I was there when she walked out of the hospital with her children and grandchildren.

The Lesson
I could not reconcile the 2 poignantly different outcomes. Both were getting pulmonary embolism workup and I ordered all the right emergent testing. So, how could an elderly patient with every comorbidity in the throws of dying live while a middle aged otherwise fairly healthy patient who cracked a joke minutes before he arrested not? Ultrasound (and thrombolytics) of course!

Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is an incredible diagnostic tool that is transforming clinical practice and medical school education. Numerous studies have shown it to be a critical component of directed resuscitation in the emergency and ICU departments’ critically ill population. In various disease processes, its use has been shown to decrease procedural complications, improve mortality, and decrease time to safe disposition. All technology is not created equal; ultrasound is unique. Instead of pulling me away from the patient, POCUS allows me to stay at the bedside gathering important information; improving my efficiency, addressing concerns, and talking with loved ones. Undoubtedly the extra time communicating and caring for the patient has improved my job satisfaction and is one of the reasons patients like it. But, there is an often overlooked significance to POCUS’s story, which has caused ripples to be felt for generations.

I believe the soul of POCUS rests firmly in what makes our profession exceptional; our willingness to self-evaluate, improve, and innovate for those we serve. POCUS stands as an early example of disruptive innovation, which has transformed the way we think about our job as clinicians. At the time of its introduction in the 70s and 80s this type of “out-of-the-box” thinking did not conform to the traditional framework. Its existence challenged many long-held beliefs and medicine’s titanic momentum perpetuated throughout generations. These innovators took the road less traveled and persevered in the face of adversity. Their gift has enabled countless others to save lives and improve patient care around the world as well as demonstrate our profession’s ability to adapt in rapidly changing times.

My path to ultrasound resulted from those emotions that remained unresolved and the process unfinished after medicine left its first mark. Feelings of inadequacy loomed, challenging my perception of the limitations of medicine and my own abilities. Painful at the time, I like to think that generations of physicians have constructively, therapeutically, applied this driving force to be better than they were the day before in whatever field their passions lie. Ultrasound is my tool, my promise to him, to her, to myself to be my best and help others be theirs.

What struggles have you overcome in your career? And how has ultrasound helped you overcome them? How do you think POCUS will change in the future? Comment below or let us know on Twitter: @AIUM_Ultrasound.

Zachary Soucy, DO, FAAEM, is Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine, Director of Emergency Ultrasound, and Co-Director of the Emergency Ultrasound Fellowship at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth, in Lebanon, New Hampshire.