POCUS Track | Department of Internal Medicine | UC Davis Health

POCUS has gained increasing focus in medical education over the last 10 years. Many medical schools and Internal Medicine residency programs now incorporate POCUS training into their curriculums. To help foster resident competence in ultrasound skills, we have developed a unique POCUS curriculum that all residents participate in throughout their time at UCD, comprised of 5 POCUS sessions in the Sim lab every year, in addition to weekly POCUS rounds in the hospital. In addition to the basic, program-wide training, the POCUS Track aims to train residents who wish to deepen and expand their POCUS skills. During the 2-year longitudinal track, residents will complete a series of activities required to achieve proficiency in image acquisition, image interpretation, clinical integration and teaching of POCUS applications. At present, the POCUS track is designed to train 6 resident per class (PGY-2&3). The track activities include:

• 2-day intensive POCUS bootcamp, which combines POCUS didactics and supervised hands-on scanning. The program mimics the curriculum of most 2-day POCUS regional courses for Internal Medicine.
• Image portfolio and evaluation. Independent acquisition of POCUS video images, submitted for review by POCUS track faculty. The requirement for successful completion of the track includes 10 cardiac studies (5 views each), 5 lung studies (A&B lines, lung sliding, pleural effusion, consolidation), 5 abdominal studies (R&L kidney, abdominal aorta, bladder, gallbladder), 3 DVT studies (bilateral 3-region exam), 3 Internal Jugular and Subclavian studies, 2 soft tissue studies (cobblestoning, abscess). Images submitted can be acquired during dedicated POCUS scanning half-days or during clinical practice.
• Completion of Online POCUS Modules. Residents will complete 6 online modules (Ultrasound Fundamentals, Cardiac, Lung, Abdomen, Vascular, Soft tissue) that review the basics of image acquisition, image interpretation and clinical integration of all high-yield applications for internal medicine.
• Completion of Online POCUS Quiz. Residents are required to pass an online quiz for each module
• Journal club. Each POCUS track resident will present a journal club article to the rest of the POCUS track participants and will summarize and post a summary on the Track site.
• Scholarly work. Residents will complete a scholarly project of their choice (poster or research presentation at institutional, regional or national conferences, case reports, QI projects, IM grand rounds, M&M or teach morning report) under the mentorship of POCUS track faculty. Of note, scholarly activity done under the POCUS track counts toward the UCD scholarly work graduation requirement.
• Teaching POCUS. The PGY-3 residents will participate in teaching Sim POCUS sessions during cohort and will lead some of the didactic sessions for PGY-1&2 POCUS track residents, with the objective of becoming proficient in teaching basic cognitive and practical POCUS skills to junior residents