Integration of Cardiac Point of Care Ultrasound (POCUS) in a Medical Physiology Course During the Preclinical Curriculum
Authors: Sudler Sydney , McDonald Halley , Al-Nakkash Layla 
Published: May 2024

Background: The early integration of hands-on point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) during medical students' preclinical curriculum has expanded the utilization of this tool which can provide rapid and effective bedside diagnosis in clinical practice. Many medical schools that have incorporated POCUS into their curriculum allude to the limitations of a large class size, learning retention, and applying these skills to aid in diagnosing pathologic conditions. Indeed, it is interesting that there is currently no consensus as to what and how much hands-on ultrasound training should be included in the medical school curriculum. At Midwestern University (MWU), we introduced a 4-year inclusion of ultrasound training throughout the medical curriculum. The core Physiology courses taken in winter and spring quarter of first year medical school, incorporate several mandatory ultrasound workshops taken by osteopathic medical students and podiatry students together. This study hypothesizes that the incorporation of cardiac POCUS in small group physiology workshops increases student confidence in their ability to measure the parameters to effectively assess cardiac output. Moreover, we hypothesize that this hands-on teaching tool reinforces the concepts taught in the didactic lectures, applying the material in a clinically relevant manner. Data obtained during the 2023-2024 winter quarter will be presented at the APS meeting. Methods: This study aims to utilize a brief survey administered via REDCap, in a questionnaire format to first year osteopathic medical students and podiatric medical students after the cardiac physiology workshop administered during the first year of medical school. Survey questions will be generated using Likert 5-point scales, ratings of (strongly agree to strongly disagree, very comfortable to very uncomfortable, high level of competence to no level of competence, and very confident to very unconfident). Survey questions will seek to assess confidence level using POCUS, ease of quantifying assessments, and differences in perceptions between podiatry and osteopathic medical students. Associations between two question responses will be assessed using the Chi-square test for independent responses and McNemar test to compare responses that were paired. A p-value <0.05 for both tests will indicate statistical significance. Furthermore, we aim to determine whether retention and application of the information taught during the cardiac POCUS workshop can be evaluated by student performance on POCUS-specific exam questions. IRB approval is currently pending. Results: We plan to share: (1) the survey questions, (2) data obtained using POCUS from the last academic years class cohort and the current class (specifically relating to their use of POCUS to calculate cardiac output) to highlight the variability in these assessments, (3) exam question analyses for the last 2-years (as assessment outcomes), (4) survey responses from the current class, (5) correlations of student perceived confidence and determined understanding. Conclusion: The introduction of POCUS utilization during the physiology courses in the first year of Osteopathic and Podiatry pre-clinical years reinforces key concepts covered in didactic lectures. We hypothesize that student perceptions of these workshops will be largely positive and improve student confidence in POCUS use.

No funding.

This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2024 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.