Point-of-Care Ultrasound

POCUS: Reinventing the Physical Exam to Elevate Patient Care

Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS) extends the physical exam and enhances patient satisfaction, diagnostic accuracy, care efficiency, procedural safety and clinical outcomes. John Bailitz, MD, and Russ Horowitz, MD, co-direct the Center for Bedside Medicine’s POCUS program, advancing bedside innovation and elevating the experience for both patients and learners.

About the Program

Pocus advances the Center for Bedside Medicine's mission by:

  • Ensuring compassionate, evidence-based and innovative patient care. POCUS improves efficiency, increases diagnostic accuracy, reduces pain and complications, and saves lives through early detection.
  • Revitalizing clinical education. POCUS enables hands-on learning that strengthens physical exam skills, clinical reasoning and bedside presence.
  • Building connection. POCUS brings patients, clinicians and learners together at the bedside, building trust, improving satisfaction and increasing professional fulfillment.

POCUS is integrated across the Pediatric Emergency Department and ICU at Lurie Children’s Hospital, as well as many Northwestern Memorial Hospital specialties, including:

  • Anesthesia
  • Pulmonary & Critical Care
  • Surgical ICU
  • Sports Medicine
  • Rheumatology
  • Ophthalmology
  • Gastroenterology
  • Emergency Medicine

 

Awards

The POCUS team was recently awarded a $100K Dixon Translational Research Grant to create POCUS Champions at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Lurie Children’s Hospital.

With this award, 32 clinicians across campus will be trained to mastery learning standards in point-of-care lung, echo and additional specialty-specific applications. These new “POCUS Champs” will learn best practices in point-of-care ultrasound education and use the latest clinical documentation software.

Thanks to the generous support of the Dixon Foundation, this program will "Train the Trainers" to rapidly expand POCUS use and improve outcomes for both patients and learners.

Program Leadership

John Bailitz, MD, FACEP, FAEMUS

Co-Director 

Leads system-wide efforts to expand equitable and appropriate use of POCUS, aided by electronic medical record (EMR) integration and AI-guided interpretation.

Russell Horowitz, MD, RDMS

Co-Director

Embeds ultrasound into medical education so students learn it early and refine their diagnostic and procedural skills later. At NMH, trainees use POCUS daily across many specialties.