POCUS

Committee Description:

Point-of-Care Ultrasound – Subcommittee of the Education Committee

VISION

We aim to guide and empower military family physicians to seamlessly integrate bedside ultrasound into practice in order to optimize their clinical skills in every possible environment.

BACKGROUND

The Uniformed Service Academy of Family Physicians POCUS Subcommittee was proposed in 2021 to address the rapidly increasing desire for military family physicians to gain and sustain knowledge, skills, equipment, and infrastructure support for POCUS in clinical practice.  In 2018, the United States Army added trauma-specific POCUS applications to the Individual Critical Task List for Field Surgeons.  In 2021 the AAFP released a policy statement “Training and Privileges in Emerging Technology” that specifically included POCUS (https://www.aafp.org/about/policies/all/privileges-new-procedures.html).  The USAFP POCUS Subcommittee, nested within the USAFP Education Committee, was approved by the board of directors and the Chapter President in November 2021.  The subcommittee will mirror work of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) POCUS Member Interest Group founded in 2016.   

LONG-TERM GOALS

• Provide support and education for military family physicians who wish to incorporate POCUS into their practices, either for procedural guidance, emergency medicine, obstetrical, musculoskeletal, or other general medical diagnostic applications.
• Serve as a voice for military family physicians relating to all aspects of POCUS use in family medicine.
• Facilitate professional development and continuing medical education in areas relating to POCUS.
• Promote unified policies, educational goals, and credentialing standards for POCUS that are consistent with the AAFP’s strategic objectives and military requirements.
• Advocate for the development of policy statements relating military family physicians’ use of POCUS by relevant organizations and military leadership.
• Advocate for collaboration and networking in POCUS education, training, and research across military treatment facilities.
• Develop the leadership skills of the POCUS Subcommittee participants by creating opportunities for leadership experience through advocacy, collaboration, and education.

OBJECTIVES TO BE UNDERTAKEN IN 2021-2022

(1) Establish inaugural leadership structure, presence, and recruit members who will ideally serve as clinical champions within their MTFs.

(2) Encourage participation in novel methods for asynchronous learning.

(3)  Advocate for live standardized POCUS CME to re-establish pre-pandemic progress towards in-person credentialing requirements.

(4)  Support education and resource development towards building local and DoD-wide credentialing pathways for POCUS.

(5)  Prepare comments, supporting evidence, curricular models, and recommendations for inclusion of POCUS into ACGME residency programs.

(6)  Promote advanced training opportunities for military family physicians, including clinical ultrasound fellowships open to family medicine applicants.