Recently, I finally, I say “finally” because I have wanted to take this 2-day course the past several years, took a Point-of-care (POCUS) course lead by Dr. Nilam Soni, MD in Austin, Texas, January 2024 for several reasons including 1) seeing how POCUS is taught in human medicine, 2) the fact that many of our family members and friends that went to the ER or Urgent Care were never imaged, 3) the tragic story of Mr. Grant Wahl, a World Cup Reporter from the USA that died in Qatar, and 4) a story told by a veterinarian last summer at the end of one of our courses about her 30-year old woman technician that had a major error related to ultrasound imaging.
The website for more information and the POCUSSA course is here.
The brief take home points – 1) we at FASTVet.com are doing a really good job of training with our Global FAST® teaching approach (since 2005; and we have set “the bar” and led point-of-care ultrasound training over the past 19-years, yes incredibly 19-years, with many of my colleagues adopting our teaching methods), 2) our Global FAST® Approach is the way in which to avoid major imaging interpretation errors, and 3) you could not only our animal patients but also save a human life.
The LINK for the January 29th to February 2, 2025, 18th Point-of -care Ultrasound Workshops for physicians is here. Instructors are from all over the USA and only 2 attendees scan per station (that’s how it was during my course). I contacted a colleague, Dr. Ravi Dhaliwal, DVM, DABVP, DACVIM (Oncology), who is really good at ultrasound like my wife Stephanie, DACVIM (SAIM), and Ravi and I went together and were in the same scanning group.
We learned – 1) FAST, 2) the BLUE protocol, 3) imaging the thyroid, gallbladder, kidneys, urinary bladder and reproductive structures, 4) evaluation of the intra-abdominal aorta, 5) evaluation for deep venous thrombosis (DVT), and 6) fundamental echocardiography and the inferior vena cava. We both could easily get the views.
The subjects we scanned were mostly college co-eds from the University of Texas at Austin, paid $180 per day. I point that out because if you have a child over 18-years of age, they may be able to join you and be a PAID scanning subject as well. The course has 120 physicians plus we 2 veterinarians. It was fantastic! There is also a subdivision for pediatric POCUS and that much smaller group also needed children. You could inquire about a child’s requirement to be a PAID scanning subject.
Dr. Nilam Soni, MD is a hospitalist in San Antonio, teaches at UTHSC in San Antonio, and is 1st editor of Point-of-care Ultrasound on the human side. His textbook is here. The website for the POCUSSA course is here.
Let me know if you have any questions by contacting me, Dr Gregory Lisciandro, DVM, DABVP, DACVECC by cell number, +1 210-260-5576 or email at FastSavesLives@gmail.com. And if you sign up, I would love to see you if I am available. We live about 1-hour northwest of Austin.
gl/GL 11-1-2024
