Hospital Medicine Point-of-Care Ultrasonography

Hospital Medicine Point of Care Ultrasonography (HM-POCUS) is a relatively new and dynamic field. The idea is simple: bring US – a powerful, portable, real time imaging technique – to the bedside. A group of hospitalists at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell are proud and excited to be part of this emerging field.

Our HM-POCUS program is one of the largest in the country. Our faculty spans two hospitals, has taught ultrasound at national level (ACP and SHM) and is involved in developing policy around HM-POCUS sponsored by Society for Hospital Medicine. All of our core POCUS faculty have completed certification pathways by American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) and/or Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM). Our qualified faculty now has hospital privileges in point of care ultrasonography.

We teach on every level: medical students, medicine residents, internal medicine fellows, hospitalists, and PAs. Our one-week POCUS class is designed to train participants to proficiency. The course includes didactic material, extensive image review, and hands-on scanning of life models. During the scanning, our student-to-faculty ratio is set not to exceed 3-1, but has not yet exceeded 2-1. During our last class, learners had 15 hours of one-on-one supervised "probe time" per week. Our training course does not end with 1-2 week "boot camp." We have implemented longitudinal yearlong curriculum, which includes hands-on supervised scanning sessions and image review. Finally, in order to complete the course, participants must also complete a portfolio of images and teach entry-level POCUS to others.

Of course, POCUS did not originate within hospital medicine, but after originating within emergency medicine arrived to us via critical care. Most of our program's core faculty have completed training in ICU POCUS offered by American Society of Chest Physicians (ACCP). Although at our institution hospitalists are the main practitioners and teachers of bedside ultrasonography, we continue to learn from other groups. Our monthly POCUS conference is a forum where IM, ER, Critical Care, Radiology, and Cardiology comes together to discuss cases.