CURRENTS: POCUS - A Call to Action

Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is increasingly recognized as an essential skill for critical care providers, intended to enhance clinical assessments to improve patient care. Beyond its adaptation for procedural guidance, bedside ultrasound assessments can provide critical diagnostic information in a timely manner to guide real-time decision making for the acutely ill patient. An accumulating body of evidence has shown that POCUS can improve clinical outcomes and lower medical costs. Over the past decade, there has been widespread adaptation of bedside ultrasonography by various critical care specialties, with respective governing societies issuing guidelines and position statements encouraging the use of POCUS. However, the field of neurocritical care has yet to fully embrace this innovative field, and neurocritical care training programs vary in their efforts to provide accessible, well-structured educational programs for trainees.  This week, Dr Lauren Koffman is joined by Dr Thanujaa Subrahmaniam and Dr Judy Ch'ang to discuss the use of POCUS in neurocritical care and the opportunities to extend its application across NCC programs.  You can read Dr Ch'ang and Dr Subrahmaniam's Currents article on POCUS in NCC at https://currents.neurocriticalcare.org/Leading-Insights/Article/point-of-care-ultrasound-education-in-neurocritical-care-a-call-to-action.