Curriculum for Fundamentals of Ultrasound in Clinical Practice

Curriculum for Fundamentals of Ultrasound in Clinical Practice R ecent advances in ultrasound technology, resulting in portable machines of high quality and a lower cost, have facilitated the rapid adoption of ultrasound imaging at the point of care.Trained clinicians in many areas of health care perform and interpret ultrasound studies to aid in the evaluation and management of their patients.An advantage of point-of-care ultrasound is that the clinician can use the information derived from the ultrasound as part of the real-time evaluation and management process.The efficiency of point-of-care ultrasound promotes optimal and timely patient care.Over the last 2 decades, the incorporation of point-of-care ultrasound in the education of physicians and other health care practitioners has seen rapid growth, resulting in increasing numbers of new clinicians entering practice trained in performing and interpreting ultrasound studies.The published evidence describing point-of-care ultrasound has seen tremendous growth.A MEDLINE search for point-of-care ultrasound returned 76 articles published in the 1990s to 2882 articles published from 2010 to 2018.This document is intended to show examples of ultrasound applications that are used routinely at the point of care and provide an educational framework for students or novices interested in learning about the field.It is meant to reflect applications that are of interest to multiple specialties, including basic topics essential to each category.Although this document reflects examinations a basic user could perform, it is not intended that all pointof-care ultrasound users incorporate each listed topic into their scopes of practice unless relevant and desired.As some topics are more applicable to certain specialties over others, users may choose the examinations that pertain to their practice, keeping in mind the existing recommendations from their specialty boards and organizations.Experienced point-of-care ultrasound operators may use advanced applications, which are not described in this document.All users must understand the topics relating to physics and instrumentation as outlined in the "Fundamentals of Ultrasound Physics and Instrumentation" (first section of this document).It is important that novice users recognize the limitations of ultrasound and the need for a comprehensive ultrasound examination or further diagnostic imaging when findings are nonspecific or indeterminate.It should also be noted that although point-of-care ultrasound is meant to answer specific questions, image acquisition and interpretation require appropriate training and practice to appreciate the nuances that occur with its use in clinical decision-making.