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UTHSCSA
DEAN’S MESSAGE
Point-of-Care Ultrasound
Changing the Practice of Medicine
By Francisco González-Scarano, MD
Our School of Medicine is leading the way in an expanding field
that promises to revolutionize health care in the next several
decades: point-of-care ultrasound.
Point-of-care ultrasound is becoming routine in many areas of
clinical practice, taking on an increasingly important role in clinical quickly. Similarly, abdominal aortic aneurysms can be detected rap-
decision making and improving efficiency in patient care. Like
many technological devices, ultrasound equipment has become
more portable, powerful, and affordable. This point-of-care ap-
proach is now widely used in some specialties such as cardiology,
obstetrics, emergency, and internal medicine. The expectation is
that it will benefit more specialties as they find appropriate uses.
However, as with many new technologies, there is still a lag between
development and integration into clinical practice.
Our recently launched Center — which opened in December
2015 — is helping bridge that lag, and ultrasound training is now
built into our curriculum from the first year through residency
training. The Center and our faculty’s achievements in this new
technology are distinguishing the School as one of the country’s
leading training grounds for point-of-care ultrasound.
In the traditional model, ultrasound tests are most commonly
performed in an imaging facility, acquired by a skilled technician
and then interpreted by a radiologist; sometimes the image is ob-
tained at the hospital bedside by technicians and then reviewed.
With the new more portable machines, clinicians directly use the
instrumentation. While the clinician may not capture all the detail
30 San Antonio Medicine • January 2016
that a radiologist can, in many cases the gains in efficiency and speed
save lives.
For example, if a patient is at high risk for cardiac arrest because
of pericardial effusion and tamponade, the diagnosis can be made
idly in patients with abdominal or back pain. In a hypotensive pa-
tient, point-of-care ultrasound can quickly establish whether the
problem is to due heart failure, or identify collapsed great veins due
to hypovolemia.
To prepare our students for a future where these technologies are
routine, we are investing resources in teaching students and house
staff how to acquire the necessary images, along with the knowledge
to understand and interpret them.
Nilam J. Soni, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, is co-direc-
tor of the Ultrasound Curriculum and director of the all new Center
for Clinical Ultrasound Education. He is one of the physicians who
is helping to integrate ultrasound into medicine on a local, national
and international level. Dr. Soni is the chief editor and co-author
of the book Point-of-care Ultrasound, a definitive guide to the prin-
ciples and diverse applications of the technology. The book recently
received the prestigious President’s Choice Award at the 2015
British Medical Association’s Medical Book Awards, competing
against 630 books in 21 categories. The book, which also earned
the designation “Highly Recommended” in the BMA’s internal
medicine category, is available in print and also digitally with videos