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.

• ACEM Policy on the use of Fucused Ultrasound in Emergency Medicine
• ACEM policy on credentialing for ED US: Trauma and Suspected AAA
• ACEM policy on credentialing for Focused Echocardiography in Life Support

SCGH

• SCGH ED Clinician Performed Emergency Ultrasound Guidelines – THIS IS A MUST READ! Includes ultrasound training options

 Training Options:

• ACEM minimum criteria for ultrasound workshop
• Training options as discussed in the SCGH ED Clinician Performed Emergency Ultrasound Guidelines
• Certificate in Clinician Performed Ultrasound (CCPU) – via the Australian Society of Ultrasound Medicine (ASUM)

Logbooks:

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

• SCGH Ultrasound Logbook (AAA, EFAST & Procedural) New!!
• EFAST Logbook
• AAA Logbook
• CCPU Logbooks:
  • Logbook for Acute Scrotum, BELS, Basic Gynaecology, Basic Soft Tissue, Biliary, E-FAST, Lung, Pleural Effusion, Rapid Cardiac Echocardiography (RCE), Renal Hydronephrosis & Calculi, Vascular Access:
    • CCPU Logbook A
  • Logbook for other units:
    • CCPU Logbook B

Individual Ultrasound Forms:

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

• EFAST Report
• AAA Basic Report

And some more for accredited advanced users…

• AAA Advanced Report
• Echo Report
  • Right Heart Assessment
• Early Pregnancy Report
• Biliary Report
• Renal Tract Report

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 physics lecture (30mins) by Adrian Goudie
• Ultrasound artifacts lecture (23mins) by James Rippey
• LITFL Ultrasound Physics
• LITFL Ultrasound Artefacts

Ultrasound Machine Setup & Scanning Technique

• How to perform an ultrasound examination (55mins) by James Rippey 
• Imaging pearls and pitfalls (18mins) by Adrian Goudie

Vascular Access

• 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.

• vanPOCUS: Peripheral IV Access (via LITFL)
• vanPOCUS: Central Venous Access (via LITFL)

EFAST

• EFAST Video Lecture – Courtesy of Ultrasound Village’s Adrian Goudie

AAA

• AAA Video Lecture – Courtesy of Ultrasound Village’s Adrian Goudie

Lung Ultrasound

• LITFL Lung Ultrasound

Cardiac Ultraound

• LITFL Cardiac Ultrasound

Airway Ultrasound

• LITFL Airway Ultrasound

Ultrasound Related Links

• LITFL Ultrasound Clinical Cases (>100 cases)

• 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

• 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

• Ultrasoundpodcast.com:
  • A quality ultrasound podcast done by Emergency Physicians,  Matt Dawson, Mike Mallin & Mike Stone, who are passionate about acute care ultrasound

• Sonocloud.org
  • Ultrasound clips and images site for upload and download, developed by the men of Ultrasoundpodcast.com

• Ultrarounds

• Mount Sinai Emergency Medicine 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.

• NYSORA – New York Scho0l of Regional Anaesthesia – US guided nerve blocks

• Academy of Emergency Ultrasound
  • Video Lectures

• SonoKids
  • As suggested by the title, this site has a focus on paediatric bedside ultrasound

• Ultrasound of the week
  • Some great cases and tips

• 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.”

• Echocardiography YouTube Channel
  • All echocardiography videos gathered from the web onto a single YouTube channel

• 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.”