Tag Archives: Bedside Ultrasound

Welcome

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Welcome to SonoMojo!

SonoMojo is a guide to ultrasound education. It’s a place for the new-to-ultrasound to get started in bedside ultrasound education and for the ultrasound-pro to discover new ultrasound resources. We’ve collected the best of FOAMed ultrasound education in one place. We’ve also added a few of our own SonoMojo ultrasound resources to help you on your path to become an ultrasound master. You’ll also find resources to help you establish ultrasound education at your own institution.

Be sure to check out these SonoMojo features:

  • Comprehensive Ultrasound Curriculum– our online FOAM-based ultrasound curriculum. It’s broken down into individual modules on the menu toolbar for your convenience. Find it HERE.
  • Ultrasound Cheat Sheets- 1 page resource with the essential into you need to know about a scan. Use it to review before performing (or teaching) a scan or to help you prep before starting a new FOAMed module. Find them HERE.
  • SonoQuizzes– they’re a quick and easy way to test your ultrasound knowledge and find out what areas you can improve on. Find them HERE.
  • Essential Resources Section– an orientation to the best ultrasound education resources for getting started in bedside ultrasound. Find it HERE.
  • Beyond Basics Section– a collection of suggested ultrasound education resources that will take your ultrasound skills to the next level and go beyond basics. Find it HERE.
  • Ultrasound Interest Group Toolbox– a how-to guide for creating medical student ultrasound education using an Ultrasound Interest Group. Find it HERE.

Please enjoy the site! Happy scanning!

Why Start a USIG?

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Be a Better Doctor
  • This is evidence based
  • US is fast, gives information in real time, improves quality and safety of patient care, and is cost effective
  • Better healthcare resources utilization
  • The AMA agrees: Resolution 802 states that using ultrasound is with all physicians’ scope of practice
Improve Your Education
  • Improves learning basic science concepts in anatomy and physiology (In one study ultrasound improved anatomy tests scores by 9%)
  • Improves physical exam skills (Get real time feedback on your physical exam findings)
  • Makes you look REALLY good on your clinical rotations
  • AAMC declared 2013 “The Year of Ultrasound” in an effort to promote ultrasound education in medical schools because they agree
Don’t Get Left Behind
Other students are learning this right now!

If you don’t have ultrasound or only have a little ultrasound in your curriculum:

  • Other schools have ultrasound fully integrated into their curriculums
  • You’ll be applying and going to residency with students who already learned ultrasound

If you already have a full 4 year curriculum:

  • This is an opportunity to develop your ultrasound skills even more and become an ultrasound master
Look Good and BE Good for Residency
  • Be better prepared and a more attractive applicant for residency
  • You’ll be prettier on paper during those pesky residency applications
  • You’ll be better prepared to use the ultrasound skills you’re expected to know
  • USIGs creates opportunities for leadership and career development
    • You’ll lead a student group, mentoring other students, develop your own projects (research, education, or otherwise)… all good stuff for the ol’ resume
    • You’ll get to know ultrasound faculty really well (who will write you nice letters of rec)
  • Finding time to learn ultrasound is much easier as a med student than as a resident
Learning ultrasound isn’t that hard
  • Plenty of evidence on this one too…
  • Others have created their own ultrasound education and started their own USIGs. You can do it too!
  • There’s plenty of resources out there (like this guide), so you’re not doing it on your own

Check out our Why Ultrasound Page for more info on why you should care about learning bedside ultrasound!

Essential Resources

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Essential Websites:

The Ultrasound Podcast – visit HERE

Sonoguide – visit HERE

SonoMojo’s FOAMed Ultrasound Curriculum – visit HERE

PIE Toronto’s Virtual Echocardiography – visit HERE (crazy cool ECHO resource!!)

Ultrasound of the Week – HERE

5 Minute Sono – HERE

Interactive Texts:

Introduction to Bedside Ultrasound Volume 1 & 2 (can be found on iTunes HERE & HERE).  They are 100% free, so you have NO excuse not to download them and enjoy their sono goodness!

Twitter:

Mike Stone @bedsidesono

Matt and Mike @ultrasoundpod

Jacob Avila @UltrasoundMD

Vicky Noble @nobleultrasound

Max and JF @EGLS_JFandMax

Alberto Goffi @GoffiAlberto

Jennifer Cotton @SonoMojo

Laleh Gharahbaghian @SonoSpot

Creagh Boulger @CreaghB

David Bahner @dpbhaner

Jason Fischer @eUSMD

Wilma Chan @Wil_MaChan

NEW Ben Smith @UltrasoundJelly

NEW Michael Pratts @PratsEM

NEW Yale EM Ultrasound @Yale_EUS

NEW Chris Fox @jchristianfox

Associations and Societies:

American Institute for Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM)

This is a great resource, seriously! If you’re into ultrasound, you should join. Membership gives you access to tons of ultrasound resources, keeps you updated on the latest in the ultrasound community, and gets you connected to the larger ultrasound community. Student memberships are $25 per year. Physician memberships are $295 per year. If you only join one ultrasound society, this is the one to join!  The website can be found HERE.

Society for Ultrasound in Medical Education (SUSME)

This is a pretty good resource too (a bit more educator focused). Student memberships are free! Physician memberships are $200 per year. The website can be found HERE.

Other Super Sites to Check Out:

Sonospot – visit HERE

Echo Guided Life Support – visit HERE

Mike Stone’s Vimeo Page – visit HERE

POCUS Toronto – visit HERE

Emergency Ultrasonography – visit HERE

American Academy of Emergency Ultrasound’s Vimeo Page- visit HERE

Sonocloud- visit HERE

Ultrasound Cheat Sheets

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Ultrasound Cheat Sheets are all the basic info you need to review before performing (or teaching) a specific ultrasound scan. They are 1-2 pages long and consisting of an organized check list of information on the application, image acquisition, and interpretation of a scan.

The Cheat Sheets

Aorta Ultrasound Cheat Sheet

Basic Cardiac Ultrasound Cheat Sheet

Carpal Tunnel Ultrasound Cheat Sheet

DVT Ultrasound Cheat Sheet

eFAST Ultrasound Cheat Sheet

First Trimester Pelvic Ultrasound – 1st trimester bleeding & ectopic pregnancy

Lung Ultrasound Cheat Sheet

Ocular Ultrasound Cheat Sheet

New Renal & Bladder Cheat Sheet

Soft Tissue Ultrasound Cheat Sheet

Ultrasound Guided Nerve Block Cheat Sheet

Ultrasound Guided Vascular Access Cheat Sheet

About the Author

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I’m an emergency ultrasound fellow and emergency medicine physician who loves bedside ultrasound. While I’m a California native, I enjoyed life in the Southeastern US for medical school, the good life in Ohio for residency, and now an ultrasound fellowship back out West. When I started SonoMojo, I was a medical student. As my career has grown, so has the site! My specific interests are now ultrasound education, bowel ultrasound, and resuscitation ultrasound.

No matter how far I get in my training, I will always have a love for ultrasound education because of my experiences as a medical student. At the start of medical school we had NO ultrasound education available to students and definitely no ultrasound in our curriculum. I stumbled upon ultrasound by complete accident at the start of my 2nd year. With the guidance of a WONDERFUL ultrasound faculty adviser I discovered the wealth of FOAMed ultrasound resources available to ultrasound learners and navigated through these resources to developed a FOAMed based  ultrasound curriculum. I also started an ultrasound student group without any financial support or ultrasounds, which forced us to develop our own resources from scratch. A couple years later our school had a large student organization that teaches bedside ultrasound to our fellow students (and sometimes faculty), official ultrasound electives, and ultrasound labs in our physical exam and anatomy curriculum. This has largely been the result of a student-driven model of ultrasound curriculum integration and the support of one amazing ultrasound faculty member. I’ve shared our experiences in developing our own ultrasound education and some resources to help you do the same. Happy ultrasounding! Please enjoy the site!

Dr. Jennifer Cotton, MD RDMS

Ultrasound Profile Pic

(Oh and my opinions are my own… They do not represent my former medical school , residency program, or current fellowship program.)

SonoMojo USIG Toolbox

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An Ultrasound Interest Group (USIG) is student-run ultrasound education organization. To offer student-driven ultrasound education takes a little work and some organization. To make this easier we’ve developed a “How To” guide for starting, organizing, and running a USIG. It’s based on the experience of creating a USIG from nothing and managing it at a medical school without any ultrasound in the curriculum. Learn from our experience in creating student-sponsored ultrasound education and start your own USIG to bring ultrasound to your school!

Basic USIG Components

The basic picture of a USIG is student-organized ultrasound education. This takes place in the form of:

  • Hands-on ultrasound workshops
  • Interest group meetings
  • Independent study (using USIG provided self-study materials)
  • Group practice sessions (in ultrasound practice lab hours arranged by the USIG)
  • Optional but fun USIG features (USIG member of the month, Ultrasound Honors, case of the month, USIG twitter account, etc.)

The heart of the group is the hands-on teaching workshops that put ultrasound skills in the hands on the students. This uses “student mentors” to teach the hands-on components and faculty, when available, to give the lecture component of ultrasound education. The group also provides support for students interested in ultrasound. This comes in the form of creating a community, organizing curriculum integration efforts, and other features of the club (access to independent ultrasound practice, ultrasound competitions, FOAMed-based self study curriculum, etc.). More information about “Medical Student Driven Ultrasound Education” can be found in this presentation.

Starting a USIG

To start you will need student leaders. These are the people who will make ultrasound education a reality. We’ve outlined the essential components of USIG leadership below to help you get your USIG off to a strong start with a strong leadership model.

How to: Set Up USIG Leadership

After establishing your leadership, you will need to figure out ultrasound workshops. This is the most important activity of a USIG, so start working on this early! It’s going to provide your members with access to the ultrasound education that probably don’t have access to. Below you’ll find all the info you need to create hands-on ultrasound workshops.

How to: Create Ultrasound Workshops

Your also going to need a website! Having a site allows USIG students to quickly connect to USIG activities and essential info. It allows you to easily share ultrasound resources with USIG students, so you can orient them to the available ultrasound education resources and allow them easily access ultrasound learning whenever, wherever. And lastly, having a site makes your USIG more visible to students and medical school administrators. Highlighting the activities and success of your USIG and its members, and drawing attention to student interest in bedside ultrasound allows your USIG website to support efforts for ultrasound curriculum integration.

How To: Create a USIG Website

Example to check out: University of Kentucky USIG Site

You’ll also need some basic resources (like ultrasounds, money, instructors, etc.) for your USIG. Below are some helpful tips for getting the resources you need to start and maintain your USIG.

How To: Get Resources for Your USIG

Once you’ve gotten the basics elements of your USIG put together, it’s time to have some fun with it. There are lots of exciting and fun things you can do with your USIG! Like seriously cool features you can add to your USIG to make learning ultrasound even more awesome!

How To: Add Awesome Extras Your USIG

USIG Membership with Distinction & Ultrasound Honors Program

USIG Ultrasound Curriculum

When starting a new ultrasound education group, there is NO need to re-invent the wheel when it comes to curriculum! There are ton of great ultrasound education resources out there. We’ve sorted through all of them and collected the best of them into a comprehensive FOAMed-based curriculum. The SonoMojo FOAM Curriculum is broken down into learning modules by scan, so you can easily learn the scan of your choice. You can find the curriculum on our FOAMed Ultrasound Curriculum page HERE or download a copy.

FOAMed Ultrasound Curriculum

Ultrasound Curriculum Integration

Making an Ultrasound Elective

There’s no need to wait for your medical school administration or course directors to provide you with ultrasound education. Not only can you create ultrasound education through your USIG, but also through forming official ultrasound electives for yourself and your fellow ultrasound students. Most medical schools allow students to create independent study electives to satisfy their specific learning interests. Simply find a faculty sponsor and submit one of the elective request template below.

First/Second Year Ultrasound Elective:

Ultrasound Elective Request Letter – Introduction to Ultrasound Elective

Fourth Year Ultrasound Electives: 

Ultrasound Elective Request Letter – Advanced Ultrasound Elective (for EM students)

Ultrasound Elective Request Letter – Advanced Ultrasound Elective (for non-EM students)

Coming Soon… “How a USIG Can Promote Ultrasound Curriculum Integration” & “Collecting Data to Support Curriculum Integration”

Incorporating Ultrasound into Your Clinical Education

SonoMojo Vimeo: “Incorporating Ultrasound into Your Clinical Education at an Ultrasound Naïve Institution”

Keeping a Record of Your Scans

Demonstrate your experience by keeping a record of it. Document how many scans you’ve done and how much time you’ve put into learning ultrasound. Record these to know/document for residency applications, for ultrasound credentialing exams, or to measure your experience for your own knowledge. It’s easy. Just create a Google Form and add a link to the home screen of your mobile devices. When you complete a scan, tap the home screen icon, fill out the form (15 seconds max), and submit. Google forms will automatically log all your scans into a spread sheet and keep a record for you. The same goes for logging hours. Learn more about Google Forms HERE.

Sample: Ultrasound Scans Log & Sample: Ultrasound Hours Log

Coming Soon… “Guide: How to Incorporate Ultrasound into Your Clinical Education in an Ultrasound Naive Institution”

Why Ultrasound

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What is Bedside Ultrasound?

Bedside ultrasound is ultrasound performed by the clinician at the bedside to enhance your physical exam and provide direct visual guidance of medical procedures. Bedside ultrasound answers specific questions generated by history and physical exam using a focused ultrasound scan performed by a clinician. It’s also know as point of care (POCUS) and physician/clinician performed ultrasound.

In case your attention span is anything like mine I’ve included a shorter and a wordier explanation of why you should learn bedside ultrasound.

 The Argument for Ultrasound (in Less Words)

If you’re attention span is anything like mine, read this version.

As a Med Student you should learn bedside ultrasound because:

You care about your patients!

  • Ultrasound is faster, can be performed at the bedside, cost less than other imaging, and has no radiation.
  • Ultrasound improves patient safety and the quality of patient care.
  • You want to be an amazing physician someday soon and want to apply ultrasound in your clinical practice.
  • Ultrasound improves patient satisfaction (they feel like you care and that you’re actually doing something for them).

You want to be awesome at med school!

  • Better test scores in anatomy and other pre-clinical courses (seriously!)
  • Get immediate feedback on your physical exam (so your physical exam skills are actually accurate and you will be a rock star medical student)
  • Look super smart on your clinical rotations and actually improve your patients’ care!
As a Physician you should learn bedside ultrasound because:

Ultrasound improves patient care!

  • It is performed in real-time. There’s no delay between the clinical picture and imaging.
  • It’s cost effective, fast, and reduces radiation exposure.
  • It’s a superior test in many cases (for pneumothorax is US almost 100% sensitive).
  • It allows you to answer focused questions with ultrasound imaging (a bit like extending your physical exam in images), so you’re working with more information.
  • Patient satisfaction increases with bedside ultrasound use (because you’re actually at the bedside touching the patient).
  •  We’re talking serious evidence based medicine… there’s so muchliterature to support bedside ultrasound it will make your head spin!

Ultrasound will make you a better teacher of medicine!

  • It’s great tool for teaching pathophysiology and connecting the clinical picture to pathology.
  • Teach your med students and residents how to get immediate feedback on their physical exam findings using ultrasound.
  • Reinforce anatomy and physiology at the bedside.
  • Exposure to ultrasound education in medical school is increasing every day. Your medical students will know this. Learn ultrasound now, so they don’t leave you behind (or show you up on rounds)!

 

The Argument for Ultrasound (in More Words)

If you want to hear more about ultrasound, keep reading!

Why Should I Care as a Med Student?

Bottom line, point of care ultrasound improves patient care and your medical education. It’s inexpensive, fast, portable, improves patient care and safety, and provides real time information during physical exams and procedures. Because of this, ultrasound is being used in medical schools to enhance medical student education. Ultrasound education in medical school ranges from a four year integrated curriculum to none at all. Teaching ultrasound in physical exam courses improves medical students’ physical exam skills set. This not only provides student with ultrasound skills to apply to patient care, but also provides them with real time feedback on their physical exam. Ultrasound also improves anatomy and physiology education. In one study, students who received ultrasound education sessions in addition to their tradition anatomy curriculum scored 9% higher on their exams than their control (dissection without ultrasound) counterparts. Seriously… you’d be nuts not to learn ultrasound!!

Why Should I Care as a Physician?

Ultrasound makes you a better physician, period. It’s inexpensive, fast, portable, improves patient care and safety, and provides real time information during physical exams and procedures. It’s easy to learn and quick to perform. It  makes procedures easier by allowing direct visualization of the real-time. This improves procedure success rates, decreases procedure length, and significantly reduces complications. Ultrasound adds valuable information to patient care  in real-time without the delay and cost associated with other imaging. The applications are limitless. It can be used to assess the heart, lungs, abdominal organs, pelvis, soft tissue, muscles bones, ligaments, blood vessels, and… you get the idea. It also allows physicians to more wisely use limited healthcare resources, as it low cost. And if that’s not enough, it’s just good science! There are literally thousands of studies on bedside ultrasound improving patient care and being easy to learn. In many cases physician performed ultrasound are equal to or superior to other imaging modalities. The evidence is clear. Bedside ultrasound is just good medicine!

Another important consideration is the fact that two thirds of the world has no access to diagnostic medical imaging. Ultrasound is an ideal tool to drastically improve patient care in resource limited healthcare setting. It’s portable, inexpensive (think Vscan), and can be performed by physicians with a small amount training. Bringing ultrasound training to physicians in developing parts is a high impact act that drastically improves the quality of medical care for people that need it most!  Yet another reason physicians, especially those involved with global health, should learn ultrasound.

Beyond Basics

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Ok so, you’ve tried some basic ultrasound. You’ve watched a few lectures. You know how to use your gain and depth buttons, but you want to learn more. Well, you’re in the right place. Here you can find helpful info for taking your ultrasound skills to the next level. Enjoy the ultrasound goodness below!

Moving Beyond Basics

SonoMojo Learning Modules:

SonoMojo’s FOAM-based ultrasound curriculum modules cover a wide range of ultrasound topics. We’ve collected all the best of ultrasound FOAMed (free online access to medical education) into one place. They’re broken down into modules by topic, so pick a topic and dive in! You can visit the page HERE.

Listen to Ultrasound Podcast:

If you’ve gone over everything from the  Ultrasound Podcast, you’ll be in good shape. It’s a great resource and there’s always new content being posted. Plus, it’s hilariously entertaining. You can find it HERE.

Follow US Masters on Twitter:

Follow the masters of Ultrasound on Twitter. Get the daily ultrasound tips and stay up to date on the latest in ultrasound.  Check out who we suggest on our US Resources page HERE.

Quiz Yourself:

Take ACEP’s online ultrasound quizzes. They are a great way to assess where you are, identify what needs work, and learn some ultrasound in the process. They are not easy quizzes and cover a rang of topics, so be prepared to be challenged. If you can pass these, you know you’re doing something right. They can be found HERE.

Visit These Ultrasound Websites:

We’ve collected the ultrasound websites we’ve found most useful in one place, on our US Resource page HERE.

Read Ultrasound iBooks:

We’re a little biased, but Introduction to Bedside Ultrasound (Volumes 1&2) is a great place to start/the best ultrasound book ever! It can be found on iTunes & it’s free (can be found HERE).

Go to Castlefest:

Seriously, go to Castlfest! It’s taught by the best of the best in ultrasound! If you’re a medical student, you can apply to for a limited number of visiting scholar ultrasound model spots. If you’re already a physician, register and attend Castlefest!! Their held in the Spring in an actual Castle! Honestly, how can you beat that?! More info about Castlefest can be found HERE.

Go to the World Congress on Ultrasound in Medical Education

There are a ton of hands-on training sessions at WUCME and it comes with all the posters and presentations of a scientific conference. You’ll get plugged into the ultrasound community, learn some awesome ultrasound skills, and hang out with ultrasound peeps from all over the world! It’s hard to beat the goodness that is WCUME. Info about WCUME can be found HERE.

Ultrasound Leadership Academy…  By Far the Best Way to Become Awesome!!

Ultrasound leadership academy (ULA) is an advanced online ultrasound education program. It’s a year long fellowship and by far the BEST way to become an ultrasound guru. ULA includes a complete year of didactics, your own personal hand held ultrasound during the course, a personal sonosim system with simulated ultrasound cases during the course (see here), free registration for any teaching event by ULA founders (Castlefest, Alaskafest, etc) and weekly image review & instruction from a live instructor via google hangouts. It is taught by the BEST of the BEST in bedside ultrasound. We’re talking Matt Dawson, Mike Malin, Mike Stone, Vicky Noble, Canadians (also know as Maxime and Jean-Francoise of EGLS), and more! It also offers >100 hrs of CME. While it’s not cheap, it’s the best quality education out there! Plus, you can sit for your RDMS (registered diagnostic medical sonographer) exam after completing a 1 year formal ultrasound training program (so you can back up your skills with some credentials). More information about the ULA can be found HERE.

Tips for Learning Ultrasound at Ultrasound Naive Institutions

“Learning Ultrasound as a Med Student at an Ultrasound-Naive Institution”

by Jennifer Cotton

Ultrasound Competency

SDOTs

Know your SDOTs (Standardized Direct Observation Tool). They are a form used to evaluate ultrasound competence. If you can meet these criteria, then you’re on the right track. You can find more info on them HERE.

Keep a Record Your of Work

Demonstrate your experience by keeping a record of it. Document how many scans you’ve done and how much time you’ve put into learning ultrasound. If you’re a physician, record these for your RDMS exam credentialing. If you’re a student, ditto for the RDMS exam and to know/document for residency applications. It’s easy. Just create a Google Form and add a link to the home screen of your mobile devices. When you complete a scan, tap the home screen icon, fill out the form (15 seconds max), and submit. Google forms will automatically log all your scans into a spread sheet and keep a record for you. The same goes for logging hours. Learn more about Google Forms HERE.

Sample: Ultrasound Scans Log & Sample: Ultrasound Hours Log