Workshop aims to expand use of point-of-care ultrasonography
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Key takeaways:
- The Philadelphia Area Critical Care Ultrasound Program held its fifth annual workshop for pulmonary and critical care fellows.
- The workshop provides hands-on opportunities to use point-of-care ultrasonography.
With its noninvasive and portable nature, point-of-care ultrasonography is an emerging technological tool for critical care clinicians when diagnosing and caring for patients.
To prepare future clinicians and propel the use of this tool forward, doctors have created a workshop to teach first-year pulmonary critical care fellows how to use and interpret images from point-of-care ultrasonography (POCUS).
This past July, Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University hosted the Philadelphia Area Critical Care Ultrasound Program (PA-CUSP). PA-CUSP is a rotating education program, having been held this year at Temple following 2 years at Penn Medicine and 2 years at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.
Healio spoke with Parth Rali, MD; Matthew Gordon, MD; and Parag Desai, MD, all faculty at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine and co-directors of the course, to learn more about this tool and program.
Power of POCUS
Despite the pocket-sized appearance of a POCUS device, Desai, professor of thoracic medicine and surgery, told Healio the device offers several benefits to both patients and clinicians when paired with a programmed smartphone/tablet.
“With POCUS, clinicians can evaluate critically ill patients with shock, myocardial infarction, heart failure, respiratory failure and acute respiratory distress syndrome at their bedside,” Desai said. “Further, it is a rapid process that essentially can be repeated as many times as needed, does not involve radiation and is easily available.”
Based on POCUS, clinicians can make several diagnoses, including pneumonia, pulmonary embolism/deep vein thrombosis, heart failure, kidney stones and gallbladder pathologies, as well as determine the type of shock a patient is experiencing, according to Rali, associate professor of thoracic medicine and surgery.
POCUS can also be used beyond critical care.
“The audience for POCUS is wide and ranges from primary care physicians and hospitalists to anesthesiologists and critical care providers to nurses, residents, physician assistants and nurse practitioners,” Gordon, associate professor of thoracic medicine and surgery, told Healio. “Anyone can integrate POCUS in practice and benefit.”
Hands-on experience
This year’s POCUS workshop agenda featured didactic sessions interspersed between six hands-on opportunities utilizing a combination of standardized patients and simulators over the 2-day event to provide fellows with a rich and memorable learning experience.
“During the hands-on sessions, we maintained an excellent ratio of one faculty member to four students,” Rali told Healio.
As a whole, the workshop set out to achieve five objectives, according to the course brochure: “introduce the indications for clinician performed ultrasound, practice the acquisition of high-quality diagnostic ultrasound images, discuss the use of ultrasound to improve procedural safety and success, review the interpretation of ultrasound images and practice the integration of ultrasound findings into clinical decision-making.”
“This course is a mixture of didactic activities and hands-on ultrasound experience on standardized patients,” Desai said, adding that the experts speaking at the workshop derive from faculties of the major academic institutions across the area.
Growth, future courses
With the completion of the fifth annual workshop conducted by the PA-CUSP, Rali reflected on the beginning of the program.
“We started with four institutions, and now we have a total of 10 institutions: Cooper Health, Einstein Medical Center, Hershey Medical Center, Inspira Healthcare, Jefferson Health, Jefferson Health New Jersey, Lankenau Medical Center, Penn Medicine, Temple Health and UPMC Harrisburg,” Desai said.
This year, the program also had several sponsors including GE Healthcare, Fujifilm Sonosite, Mindray, Surgical Science and EchoNous.
“The program has grown tremendously partly due to all of us realizing the need for it and the overwhelming support we have received from like-minded faculties across health systems,” Rali told Healio.
In terms of next year’s program, Rali, Desai and Gordon want to expand the reach of the program to other pulmonary and critical care programs from the regional area to participate in the workshop, which will again be held at Temple.
“We also would like to organize a POCUS workshop with CME for all health care providers in fall 2024 and continue our PA-CUSP for fellows,” Rali added.
References:
- An incredible focus on POCUS at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine. https://medicine.temple.edu/news/incredible-focus-pocus-lewis-katz-school-medicine. Updated Feb. 13, 2023. Accessed Aug. 8, 2023.
- Philadelphia Area Critical Care Ultrasound Program fifth annual workshop. Event brochure. PA-CUSP. Accessed Aug. 8, 2023.
- Point-of-care ultrasound. https://medicine.temple.edu/education/md-program/curriculum/point-care-ultrasound. Accessed Aug. 8, 2023.
For more information:
Parth Rali, MD, can be reached at parth.rali@tuhs.temple.edu.