Presenting Author:

Emily Baran, M.D.

Principal Investigator:

Emily Baran, M.D.

Department:

Emergency Medicine

Keywords:

POCUS, Ultrasound, FAST, EFAST, Emergency, EUS, Digital, Learning, Online, Interactive, Sonolearning

Location:

Third Floor, Feinberg Pavilion, Northwestern Memorial Hospital

E3 - Education

An Online Interactive Modular Curriculum for Point-of-Care Ultrasound

Introduction Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is performed by the physician at the bedside to rapidly diagnose and guide treatment. POCUS has grown exponentially and been shown to lead to improvements in both patient care and patient safety. Competency in POCUS is required by the residency review committees for multiple medical specialties with specific educational milestones and specialty-specific credentialing requirements. In addition to the requirement to provide adequate training in POCUS for physicians in training, there a larger need to integrate ultrasound education into medical student, physician assistant and nursing curriculums. Project While there are many requirements and resources for training, there is not a comprehensive digital curriculum integrating high-quality didactics and videos demonstrating proper use of ultrasound with real-time feedback for learners. The goal of this project was to develop a premium interactive curriculum in an online format. The modular curriculum is planned to have a total of 12 modules covering the core applications of POCUS: EFAST, Physics and Instrumentation, Cardiac, Intra-Uterine Pregnancy, Biliary, Renal, Aorta, DVT, Musculoskeletal, Vascular Access, Ocular and Thoracic. Outcome The framework for the digital modules was developed incorporating anatomy animations, instructional videos and interactive questions (Fig 1,2). The first module - EFAST Exam: The Extended Focused Assessment with Sonography for Trauma has been completed and piloted during the Emergency Medicine Residency Introduction to Ultrasound Course. A survey of the 15 residents who participated in the pilot of the EFAST module was performed with a response rate of 100%. All 15 residents rated the module successful compared to traditional lecture on a 5-point Likert scale, 53.3% somewhat successful and 46.7% extremely successful (Fig 3). 93.3% of the residents thought the module provided a “flipped” classroom experience allowing more time for questions and hands-on scanning. 100% of the residents answered they would use the modules after their introduction rotation as an on-line resource for review of POCUS skills. Conclusion A POCUS curriculum can be successfully created using an online interactive modular format. Eleven additional modules are being created using the EFAST framework and will allow for comprehensive POCUS training at FSM and in the Northwestern McGaw residency programs. Implementation into the FSM curriculum and expansion within the Emergency Medicine residency curriculum will begin June 2017. This project is funded by a Digital Online Projects to Enhance Learning Grant from the Provost/Faculty Learning Workgroup and FSM.