Ultrasound – Where do I start?

So you want to do some ultrasound scanning! Here are some things you should know before picking up a probe:

Ultrasound Policies:

ACEM

We highly recommend that you read these and try to achieve ACEM level accreditation to perform EFAST & AAA bedside ultrasounds while you have access to several highly credentialed ultrasound trained Emergency Physicians while at SCGH ED.

SCGH

 Training Options:

Logbooks:

These are printable pdf versions of logbooks for cataloguing your AAA & EFAST scans to meet the ACEM accreditation requirements (courtesy of Ultrasound Village)

Individual Ultrasound Forms:

The individual versions of the logbook forms from Ultrasound Village for documenting your bedside ultrasounds

And some more for accredited advanced users…

Looking after the Ultrasound Probe:

This video, courtesy of the Sono Cave, describes:

  • How and when to use an ultrasound probe cover
  • How to clean the transducer after day to day use
  • It also touches on how the probe should be cleaned if it comes in contact with bodily fluids

Basic Ultrasound Physics:

Ultrasound Machine Setup & Scanning Technique

Vascular Access

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  • Ultrasound Guided Peripheral Intravenous Vascular Access Online Course Videos (by Dr James Rippey):
    • This is a comprehensive course designed to ensure the learner acquires the knowledge they need to safely and effectively perform ultrasound guided peripheral intravenous access whenever it is indicated. It is for medical professionals only.
    • Trainees work through the lectures and complete quizzes to ensure they understand the key concepts. A certificate of completion can be downloaded.
    • Ideally candidates then attend a workshop to practice their new skill, honing the complex and multidimensional visuomotor and visuospatial skills required before moving on to patients. 
    • A practical competence-based assessment ensures the trainee has reached an acceptable level of understanding and ability.

EFAST

AAA

Lung Ultrasound

Cardiac Ultraound

Airway Ultrasound

Ultrasound Related Links

  • Life in the Fastlane – Ultrasound Library Database
    • An evolving, searchable, ultrasound database collaboration between Mike Cadogan and James Rippey (with input from James’ sonocolleagues at SCGH) that contains images and video loops, with explanations, to showcase different sonographic findings relevant to critical care medicine
  • ASUM Drive
    • Streaming access to a wide range of content across Ultrasound specialities and all future releases
  • Ultrasound Village Lectures:
    • Video lectures by Adrian Goudie, James Rippey and Greg Sweetman, covering may core critical care ultrasound topics
  • SonoSpot: Topics in Bedside Ultrasound:
    • A site developed by Laleh Gharahbaghian, Stanford University: “is a place where the interesting, funny, cool and geeky meet to share their tips/tricks/knowledge of and adventures with bedside EM ultrasound. A place to highlight cases, applications and prominent people in bedside US education and research. Here’s to satisfied participants and students, lives saved, and spreading the gospel of the ‘Sound!”….great cases, tutorials and sonolinks
  • Core Ultrasound
    • 5 Min Sono Vids: Videos are meant to give you a basic how-to-do for a specific US exam.  It’s basic. I won’t be going into subtle findings that you probably won’t use.  I also won’t be going through the history of an exam or the research/accuracy behind it.  It’s just to get you familiar with the exam.
    • Ultrasound of the Week: These are weekly cases that start out with a question, then give you an evidence based answer.
    • Ultrasound Podcast: This tab will show you links to the USP archive videos from before 2020 as well as link to the current audio-only podcast
    • Lectures: Longer form lectures, usually from in-person didactics one of us have given.
    • Tools: These are free-to-use tools and tutorials that Ben Smith created from his mind.
    • Blog: Longer-form write-ups on ultrasound topics.  Think of these like peer-reviewed journal articles (but their free and open access!)
  • Mount Sinai Emergency Medicine Ultrasound
    • “This is the website for the Mount Sinai Emergency Ultrasound Division. It serves as an information resource for residents, fellows, medical students, and others seeking information about point-of-care ultrasound.”
  • EDE Blog
    • POINT OF CARE ULTRASOUND! That’s what this blog is about. EDE or Emergency Department Echo is a series of educational programs with a decade of experience in teaching POCUS.
  • Emergency Medicine Ultrasound Group Sydney
    • “We are a group of enthusiastic ultrasound users and supporters in the Emergency Department’s of the Greater Sydney area (and beyond!). We are a diverse alliance that includes senior EM consultants who already have high level qualifications, new EM consultants in the process of learning more ultrasound, supportive sonographers and radiologists, ED trainees, all the way down to medical students who are keen to learn but have had no formal training in ultrasound.”
  • Echopraxis
    • Echopraxis.com is a website for trainees and specialists in ICU, anaesthesia, and emergency medicine, interested in echo and ultrasound.
  • The POCUS Atlas
    • “The Point of Care Ultrasound (POCUS) Atlas is collaborative educational platform where we create, share, and curate free ultrasound education material. Our goal is to improve the way POCUS is taught on a global scale. The POCUS Image Atlas is a collection of rare, exemplary, and perfectly captured ultrasound images intended to be used as educational material. The infographics of The Evidence Atlas showcase the data powering the POCUS movement.”
  • Sonoworld – Youtube Channel
    • “SonoWorld (sonoworld.com) was launched in 1999 as a way to use the emerging Internet to provide free educational materials to ultrasound practitioners in developing countries around the world. SonoWorld has since become the world’s largest single group of medical professionals involved in ultrasound.”
  • Radquarters – Youtube Channel
    • “Let’s learn some radiology! Here you’ll find high-yield, educational radiology lectures with an emphasis on body imaging using a multimodality approach, including MRI, CT, ultrasound, radiography, and nuclear medicine. These video lectures are designed for radiology residents, fellows and imaging technologists, as well as any student or practitioner interested in optimizing patient care through radiology.”