New Ultrasound Education Research Published

GECC would like to congratulate Dr. Lori Stolz and her team on their publication, Point-of-care ultrasound education for non-physician clinicians in a resource-limited emergency department in the journal, Tropical Medicine and International Health. In the paper, Dr. Stolz and her team describe a novel curriculum for point-of-care ultrasound education of non-physician emergency practitioners in a resource-limited setting. These non-physician clinicians integrated ultrasound into clinical practice and utilized this imaging modality more frequently than traditional radiology department imaging with a large proportion of positive findings.

The use of point-of-care ultrasound was taught to emergency care providers through lectures, bedsides teaching, and hands-on practical sessions. Lectures were tailored to care providers’ knowledge base and available therapeutic means. Every ultrasound examination performed by these providers was recorded over 4.5 years. Findings of these examinations were categorized as positive, negative, indeterminate or procedural. Other radiologic studies ordered over this same time period were also recorded.

As a result, a total of 22,639 patients were evaluated in the emergency department by emergency care providers, and 2,185 point-of-care ultrasound examinations were performed on 1,886 patients. Most commonly used were the focused assessment with sonography in trauma examination (53.3%) and echocardiography (16.4%). Point-of-care ultrasound studies were performed more frequently than radiology department-performed studies. Positive findings were documented in 46% of all examinations.

We are very proud of Dr. Stolz and her team for publishing this important work and look forward to additional follow up studies in the coming years. Read the entire publication.