CCUS – Western Sono

2016 Canadian Resuscitative Ultrasound Course – A Resounding Success

arntfield — Fri, 26 Aug 2016 19:59:27 +0000

With 72 learners, 25 faculty and 2.5 days of high intensity, resuscitative ultrasound training, the 2016 CRUS course outdid itself even this year. In addition to the usual features of the course like a flipped classroom curriculum (eliminating lectures altogether), 5 hours a day of practical training and a 2:1 learner to trainer bedside ratio, this course offered a new general simulation station (ultrasound integrated, of course), star studded local, national and international faculty and a showcase of the newest and most innovative ultrasound techniques and equipment. Also, this year, lunchtime Kahoot sessions and an optional third day was added to address the growing interest in learning advanced echocardiographic techniques to be applied at the point-of-care were exciting additions to our program.

A huge thank you to all those learners, faculty, vendors and staff (esp the CSTAR staff and Rebecca Rondinelli) for making this a memorable experience!

This scale of course can only happen once a year so mark your calendars for the 2017 course which will take place on August 17 and 18 2017. Keep tabs on this website for announcements or, if you would like to be emailed when course registration for 2017 opens, please email Tammy Mills at [email protected]

For some snaps of the course this year, see our gallery below.

Critical Care Ultrasound Fellowship: Dr. Vincent Lau

arntfield — Fri, 08 Jul 2016 20:39:51 +0000

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.

2015 Critical Care Ultrasound Course – Open for Registration

arntfield — Tue, 07 Apr 2015 14:50:40 +0000

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.

2015 Critical Care Ultrasound Course – Registration Now Open

arntfield — Mon, 23 Mar 2015 18:45:51 +0000

The 2015 Critical Care Ultrasound Course will be offered August 20-21, 2015.

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.

Point-of-Care Ultrasound Featured on TV

arntfield — Fri, 07 Nov 2014 21:52:58 +0000

The innovation and leadership of Western University’s and LHSC’s Point-of-Care Ultrasound program recently garnered regional media attention. With leading programs in emergency medicine and critical care and emerging programs in anesthesia, internal medicine and surgery, the collaborative, interdisciplinary vision of our POCUS program is being actualized to the betterment of the patient and physician experience. See the news piece below or the full news story at this link.

[wpvideo S3urzShc]

CCUS 2014: Biggest, best ultrasound course of its kind in Canada

arntfield — Sun, 24 Aug 2014 02:53:47 +0000

As far as critical care and resuscitative ultrasound courses go – this is the most state of the art, progressive and star-studded faculty-loaded course of its kind in Canada and, dare we say, North America. 2 full days of critical care ultrasound with a flipped classroom format, minimal lecture time and, for those short lectures we did include, high tech 3 screen display. The course also included a live session from Montreal demonstrating critical care echo, “in vivo” in the ICU environment on a real patient.

Some images of the course are below. A tremendous achievement for the faculty, for the WesternSono program and a really excellent demonstration of the sophistication and organizational abilities of CSTAR – the hosting facility and personnel in the University Hospital teaching space.

Stay tuned for CCUS 2015: August 20th and 21st 2015 here in London.

CCUS 2014 Course: This Week!

arntfield — Mon, 18 Aug 2014 18:16:06 +0000

In a few short days, CCUS 2014 will be underway at University Hospital and CSTAR, boasting:

-the biggest course of its kind in Canada
-top names in the field as faculty
-2:1 participant to faculty ratio
-flipped classroom format permitting 10hrs over 2 days of practical instruction
-60 participants from multiple disciplines (CCM, IM, EM, anesthesia, cardiac surgery)

Faculty:

Course Director: Rob Arntfield

Be sure to post about your experience as participant or faculty on social media using #ccus2014 !

2014 Critical Care Ultrasound Course – Open for Registration

arntfield — Thu, 15 May 2014 16:19:20 +0000

The 5th annual Western University Critical Care Ultrasound Course is now open for registration!

The 2 day course, directed by Dr. Rob Arntfield, is being held on August 21st and Aug 22nd, 2014 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 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)

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:

Along with a star studded list of local Western University faculty, the course this year will host 2 excellent visiting faculty:

Dr. Paul Mayo – intensivist and the godfather of critical care ultrasound from NY, NY. He needs no further introduction.

Dr. Scott Millington – intensivist, ACCP echo course leader, U of Ottawa critical care ultrasound director.

To register and for more details please go to this link: http://www.cvent.com/d/04q2bq

The course brochure can be downloaded here

Contact [email protected] with any questions

Advanced Critical Care Echo Handbook

arntfield — Tue, 11 Feb 2014 01:19:29 +0000

So you’re feeling comfortable with assessing LV function, RV function, the pericardium, the IVC and some basic valve stuff. What next? What should you focus on to take your critical care echo game to the next level?

For some inspiration, check out this handbook that Dr. Mark Tutschka (PGY5 – Critical Care) has put together. It is a nice, succinct guide to some of the advanced applications for echocardiography in the ICU that he (and I) feel are most valuable in the initial venture in to Doppler, grading regurgitation severity and some more quantitative analysis that will help with hemodynamics. It is by no means comprehensive but should whet your appetite for something more substantial, like a definitive echocardiography text or this excellent ICU echocardiography book.

The book can be easily bound in to a pocket-sized handbook. We have some here at Western if you’re interested in a free copy.

Lung Ultrasound – Interpreting the lung and pleural “signatures”

arntfield — Sat, 12 Oct 2013 20:41:53 +0000

In follow up to the tutorial on lung ultrasound image acquisition, this tutorial reviews the essential “signatures” of lung and pleural ultrasound that guide image interpretation.

Go ahead – take 20 minutes and unlock the power of lung ultrasound through this review of the 5 essential findings:

1. Lung sliding (along with lung pulse, lung point)
2. A lines
3. B lines
4. Consolidation
5. Effusion

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uv6zI4QHYss&w=420&h=315]