Ultrasound within critical care is growing rapidly and has a large role for multiple diagnostic applications and for guidance of invasive procedures.
A recent international roundtable, composed of 29 experts from five continents, just published recommendations on the need for developing training standards for intensive care medical students. Twelve Critical Care societies from around the world have endorsed the framework. They state, “There was 100% agreement among participants that general critical care ultrasound and ‘basic’ critical care echocardiography should be mandatory in the curriculum of intensive care unit (ICU) physicians.”
The first step to proficiency is good education, and I am sure that I am among many who work in acute care who applaud the move to make critical care ultrasound training mandatory in ICU curriculums around the world.
(The abstract for the “International Expert Statement on Training Standards for Critical Care Ultrasonography” is on the Intensive Care Medicine website. Additionally, the American College of Chest Physicians/La Société de Réanimation de Langue Française previously published a Statement on Competence in Critical Care Ultrasonography suggesting that Critical Care ultrasonography requires training competency in the areas of pleural, vascular, thoracic and basic and advanced echocardiography.)