Educational philosophy

Say no to GIZMO Idolatry

I freely admit to being an early adopter of handheld ultrasound. But I want you to know that I am am not a Gizmo idolater.

I strongly believe in the classics of medicine. History, examination and basic tests -in medicine these are a CXR, ECG etc. I am also a believer in eliciting signs. (Does the valsalva increase the ejection systolic murmur, it there pulses paradoxis). Technology only provides clinical answers to clinical questions. Sometimes no imaging is best as it will not differentiate the diagnosis or management. If hand held ultrasound does offer an avantage to the clinician it is in the proximity of the testing and interpretation. However everything has trade offs on a busy admission or ward round.

Leff B, Finucane TE. Gizmo idolatry. JAMA. 2008 Apr 16;299(15):1830-2

 

Get a Grip: Gripology of Ultrasound

Your ability to comfortably and repeatably obtain the images that you require is found in repetition. The star of this though is to have the right grip. These grips wil vary according to your handedness and each type of image you are acquiring. 

Learn More: Getting to Grips

Basics of cardiac imaging

There are many books, websites and you tube videos out there that will assist your understanding and performance of this. This is just my take...

://docs.google.com/presentation/d/10IOlSrLOF7QwQNi0KiWcnYO1dD3dYJ6XA04giUyE2s4/edit?usp=sharing 

Understanding HFpEF

Assessing diastolic function is outside the scope of rapid cardiac assessment but that does not mean you shouldn't understand it: Here's my take

Darstidly diastology

Index of Australiasian POCUS sites

Pocus Revolution : An emergency trainee active between 2019-2021

EMUGS: Emergency orientated POCUS group