Diagnostic Point-of-Care Ultrasound: Recommendations From an Expert Panel

New applications of perioperative POCUS: beyond the Big 4

“…As a result, the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) has established consensus opinion guidelines to direct the scope of practice and suggest training to achieve competence in many of these areas. These are summarized in Table 1 56. For most of these newer applications of POCUS, it is recommended that 30 studies are personally performed and interpreted, and an additional 20 studies are interpreted to achieve baseline competence.…”

Logistics of perioperative diagnostic point-of-care ultrasound: nomenclature, scope of practice, training, credentialing/privileging, and billing

“…For purposes of this manuscript, PoCUS is the use of ultrasound by a primary treating provider to either guide a procedure or answer a clinical question. 2 These 2 applications will henceforth be referred to as procedural and diagnostic PoCUS, respectively. Except when procedural PoCUS is specifically invoked, the remainder of this manuscript will deal exclusively with diagnostic PoCUS.…”

“…The panels also provided joint recommendations for the minimum number of supervised diagnostic PoCUS training studies needed to achieve competence. 2,18 To reach these recommendations, the panels reviewed 2 types of published data: (1) recommendations for minimum training numbers issued by other professional medical societies and (2) learning curve data of actual ultrasound use by PoCUS-naive trainees. Both sets of data were evaluated because published studies and the Expert Panel members' own clinical experiences suggested that the minimum training numbers recommended by other professional medical societies have sometimes underestimated the minimum number of training studies needed for "real world" learners to achieve competence.…”

“…The panels also provided joint recommendations for the minimum number of supervised diagnostic PoCUS training studies needed to achieve competence 2,18. To reach these recommendations, the panels reviewed 2 types of published data: (1) recommendations for minimum training numbers issued by other professional medical societies and (2) learning curve data of actual ultrasound use by PoCUS-naive trainees.…”

Role of diagnostic point-of-care ultrasound in preoperative optimization: a narrative review

“…This course consists of the following components: (i) providing evidence of 10 hours of relevant training in diagnostic PoCUS external to the certificate (eg, during residency/ fellowship and/or from continuing medical education); (ii) completion of a series of online case-based image interpretation exercises; (iii) submission of a log of studies performed, a subset of which has been overread by a qualified mentor; and (iv) passing of a web-based final exam. 32,33 Though it remains unproven, handheld probes with in-built artificial intelligence for imaging guidance, cloud-based storage of images, and internet connectivity might offer various modes of ongoing education for the anesthesiologist in practice. 34…”