The Day
Last Friday I had the amazing opportunity to present our work at the Department of Medicine Resident Research Day (take a deep breath before saying this one out loud): Acquisition and Retention of Lung Ultrasound Skills by Respiratory Therapists: a point-of-care ultrasound curriculum for respiratory therapists (and breathe). Although complimentary meals are usually enough to get hungry medical students out to any event, this research day was filled with talks and interesting research topics that rivaled the charcuterie board. Dr. Erin Spicer’s talk on QI methodology and Dr. Christopher McIntyre’s keynote on the salient points of research gave good insight for young researchers.
The Project
The A-LURT project was a formative experience for me in ultrasound education and research. The enthusiasm from our 10 respiratory therapists (RTs) during the in-person training sessions and clinical musings seen on their written reports were inspiring to see. With more physicians incorporating point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) in their practice, equipping RTs with the knowledge and skills to facilitate more informed discussions around patient management was a meaningful project for me to contribute to in the areas of patient safety and care. Our RTs impressed us with their amazing ability to capture and interpret lung ultrasound images (96.4% interpretable images deemed by advanced ultrasonographer, 86.1% accurate interpretations of their images). We are hoping they will continue to wow us during the 6 week follow up for skill and knowledge retention. Throughout the project I was involved in curriculum development and hands-on teaching. I was even humbled by a request to run one of the in-person training sessions by myself. As someone interested in the application of ultrasound in acute care medicine, the experience of this project will certainly shape the decisions I make for future practice and education.
The People
It goes without saying that the posse I am grateful to be called a part of were instrumental in this experience. The RTs are a vibrant group who are an endless source of curiosity and skill. Dr. Amanda Young, critical care fellow and first author on this fine work, has taught me much about ultrasound, medicine as a career, and arguably most importantly, the top places to hit up during my March Break getaway to Seattle. Dr.’s Frank Myslik and Vince Lau were our in-house expert ultrasonographers who diligently assessed the scans done by the RTs. Dr. Myslik and I met during my advanced interviewing course last year and has been a great mentor who enlisted me in other ultrasound heroics (see: biliary ultrasound POCUS project). Dr. Lau is a young charismatic critical care physician who drops golden nuggets of advice on me from time to time and represents a glimpse of what the future holds. And of course Dr. Rob Arntfield who enlisted me onto the Westernsono team and has since given me several fulfilling opportunities to help prove to myself what exactly I can do with my future. He even lent me one of his VScans early on for me to discover the addicting nature of ultrasound myself (there is a ‘first day of school’-esque picture of me holding this machine somewhere). Thanks team!
Special thanks to Dr. Ian Ball and Dr. Tao Rui who were my judges on Research Day. Our poster won Best Poster in the PhD/MSc/MD Student category (but the real prize is the BBQ we get to attend)
Rob Arntfield, MD, FRCPC and Atul Jaidka, MD, PGY2 takes us through the fundamentals of performing a transesophageal echocardiography (TEE). This video uses a live demonstration to introduce probe manipulation, how to obtain different views, and how to landmark for these different views. The techniques being presented will help you in performing goal-directed TEE in critically ill patients, whether it be for visualizing valvular disorders or during a resuscitation. Make sure to check out the image acquisition screencasts afterwards to learn how to interpret your TEE findings!
Critical Care Western and the Critical Care Ultrasound Program are extremely pleased to announce that Dr. Vincent Lau, FRCPC (internal medicine and critical care) is the new critical care ultrasound fellow!
Dr. Lau will embark on a 6 month fellowship here at Western designed to position him as a national leader in the performance and oversight of critical care ultrasound. In particular, Dr. Lau will focus on:
-advanced scanning techniques (including advanced cardiac, TEE and TCD scanning)
-creation of educational content for this website and social media
-contributing to book chapters and ongoing POCUS research
-co-directing the annual Resuscitative Ultrasound Course
-supervising the critical care ultrasound “POCUS” rotation
-conducting quality assurance on the daily scans carried out in both the citywide ICU’s
We are delighted to have Dr. Lau in the program.
About the Critical Care Ultrasound Fellowship:
The only fellowship of its kind, the CCUS fellowship is designed to support the development of critical care physicians in to leaders in the emerging sub-specialty of critical care ultrasound. Scanning techniques, scholarly activity (research, educational content development and book chapters) as well as program management (quality assurance, administration and curriculum design) are the prevailing themes of the fellowship. For a full description of the fellowship, see this document.
If you are interested in the fellowship please contact Dr. Robert Arntfield for more details.
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A huge thank you to our dedicated @emergencylondon instructors, the organizing and leadership prowess of Dr. Heather Hames and Dr. Grant Coome, the support staff at CSTAR, vendor support from Sonosite and Phillips, and of course all of our volunteer models. The team effort made this an awesome educational event for all.
We are already looking forward to next year!
EM POCUS @westernsono
]]>Thanks to all that have participated, and special thanks to Cristiana Olaru, Behzad Hassani and Drew Thompson for this CME development.
Stay tuned for our next applications in the modular series.
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The 7th annual Canadian Resuscitative Ultrasound Course (formerly Critical Care Ultrasound Course) is now open for registration!
(download the brochure for the course here)
The 2 day course (with the option of a 3rd half-day) is being held on August 18th, 19th (and 20th) 2016 at the sophisticated CSTAR facility at University Hospital in London, Ontario. This is the biggest and most comprehensive course of its kind offered in Canada. It is ideal for any clinician involved in resuscitation, such as intensivists, emergency physicians, anesthesiologists or internists.
In the core 2-day course, we emphasize resuscitative ultrasound in the following domains:
-critical care echocardiography
-lung and pleural ultrasound
-abdominal free fluid
-ultrasound guided vascular access (central, peripheral and arterial lines)
-DVT
For those who wish to stay for the 3rd day, a half-day workshop will focus on more advanced echocardiographic techniques including:
-determination of stroke volume
-quantitative right sided assessment
-valvular assessmentBrochure for ccus 2016 Final
-goal directed TEE
Images from last year’s course:
The course is designed to maximize time spent engaged in practical skills like scanning or practicing image interpretation:
-exceptional participant to faculty ratio of 2:1 for bedside scanning instruction
-lecture content made available online for self-study before course (available at least 8 weeks ahead of course)
-on day of course: very brief lectures with live demonstration reviewing contents from pre-course lectures
-Sono-social the first night of the course with dinner and live music!
Along with our talented local faculty, guest faculty this year include Drs:
Paul Mayo (Northwell University, NYC)
Bret Nelson (Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NYC)
Seth Koenig (Northwell University NYC)
Vicki Noble (Harvard University, Boston)
Scott Millington (University of Ottawa)
Brian Buchanan (University of Alberta)
Aws Alherbish (University of Alberta)
To register and for more details please go to this link: http://www.cvent.com/d/9fq0hg
The brochure for the course can be found here
Contact [email protected] with any questions.
]]>See pictures from the course here.
An additional highlight of the course this year was the live stream of an in vivo critical care echocardiogram from Montreal. Highlighting a new software program called Reacts, this session was able to bring our audience of 100 faculty and particpants to the bedside in an ICU to interpret real time, echo images. Simply outstanding.
Clips here recorded from Reacts (poor audio from our London end due to being in an auditorium)
A review of the basic cardiac views and 3D perspectives using “assets” in the Reacts platform:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBKsrdVsWiU]
Echopalooza with real time critical care echo in Montreal streaming to our participants in London:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijQwixej_G8]
Interested in next year’s course? It will be August 18, 19 2016. Please email Tammy at [email protected] to express your interest and to reserve a spot. The course is full every year with a wait list so don’t wait!
The 6th annual Western University Critical Care Ultrasound Course is now open for registration!
The brochure for the course can be found here CCUS 2015
The 2 day course, directed by Dr. Rob Arntfield, is being held on August 20th and Aug 21st, 2015 at University Hospital in London, Ontario and is the biggest, most comprehensive course of its kind offered in Canada. It is ideal for any clinician involved in resuscitation, such as intensivists, emergency physicians, general internists and anesthesiologists.
The course emphasizes resuscitative ultrasound in the following domains:
-critical care echocardiography
-lung and pleural ultrasound
-abdominal free fluid
-ultrasound guided vascular access (central, peripheral – incl PICC lines, arterial)
-DVT
See images from last year’s course here.
The course is designed to maximize time spent engaged in practical skills like scanning or practicing image interpretation:
-exceptional participant to faculty ratio of 2:1 for bedside scanning instruction
-lecture content made available online for self-study before course (available 4 weeks ahead of course)
-on day of course: very brief lectures with live demonstration reviewing contents from pre-course lectures
-Sono-social the first night of the course with dinner and live music!
Along with our talented local faculty, guest faculty this year include Drs. Bret Nelson (Mt Sinai, NYC), Pierre Kory (U of Wisonsin) and Scott Millington (U of Ottawa).
To register and for more details please go to this link: http://www.cvent.com/d/k4qtc2
The brochure for the course can be found here CCUS 2015
Contact [email protected] with any questions.
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This annual course is offered as the official course of our Critical Care training program and is attended by all critical care fellows. Further, it will be the most comprehensive course offered in the country for the intensivist or resuscitative physician who seeks to acquired fundamental skills in the assessment of:
-Thoracic and lung ultrasound
-Vascular access, including peripheral veins and arteries
-Assessment for DVT
-Critical Care Echocardiography including assessment of LV function, RV, pericardium, valves and IVC.
The course will be directed by Robert Arntfield.
Additional faculty, agenda and brochure will be announced closer to the course but for a sense of what is in store for you, see the images from the 2014 course.
If you have interest in attending this course please email [email protected] who will be able to notify you when registration for this course opens early in 2015.
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