The use of point-of-care ultrasound in the resource-limited setting

Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is intended to rapidly assess patients when access to other diagnostic imaging modalities is limited. The advantage of POCUS is that clinicians can use real-time images rather than images recorded and reported by a sonographer or a radiologist, thus allowing immediate correlation of findings with signs and symptoms. Defining POCUS curricula appropriate to specific low resource settings will be important for targeted allocation of training resources. Bedside assessment of deep venous thrombosis is one of the most useful POCUS applications as it is easy to perform, and has immediate therapeutic consequences. As face-to-face POCUS training modules are by definition short and the trainer is usually only available for a short period of time, methods to ensure continuous support and quality assurance need to be considered when designing or implementing training. A POCUS protocol is therefore frequently used in trauma patients and is well established.