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POCUS (point-of-care ultrasound) may have a magical-sounding name, but its benefits in primary care are very much real. Just ask any of the 11 faculty members who participated in an on-campus training in December hosted by the department of physician assistant studies. 

Faculty from the Interservice Physician Assistant Program at Fort Sam Houston and from the San Antonio Uniformed Services Healthcare Consortium (SAUSHEC) Emergency Medicine Ultrasound Fellowship training program conducted the training on Dec. 18-19. U.S. Army Maj. Craigreon Wallace, faculty and instructor at the IPAP at Fort Sam Houston and adjunct with the ultrasound fellowship program, led the training, which was held at the ultrasound training center at the Department of Emergency Medicine.
 
POCUS, also referred to as bedside ultrasound, allows patients to be examined to expediently rule out specific conditions, such as the presence of gallstones, abdominal aortic aneurysm or pneumothorax. 

“It’s becoming more common,” Paul Allen, Sr., DSc, MPAS, PA-C, assistant professor, program director and chair of the department of physician assistant studies. “We are preparing to integrate it into our own program.”

The attending faculty—including eight from the PA department—practiced ultrasound exams on models and each other, Allen said. A flipped classroom model enabled participants to dive into the lecture and lab format because they viewed videos in advance of the training.