Highlights
- •Ultrasonography is a very useful tool in the internal medicine daily practice.
- •The use of Point-of-care-ultrasound needs to be widespread among internists.
- •Core competencies and training requirements are defined in this document.
Abstract
Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is increasingly used to assess medical patients.
It has many uses in daily clinical practice, including improved diagnostic timeliness
and accuracy, and providing information about a patient's prognosis and follow-up.
It has been integrated into numerous specialities, but remains relatively undefined
in internal medicine training programs. Ultrasonography is a useful tool in the standard
clinical practice of internists in numerous clinical scenarios (Emergency Department,
hospital ward, general and specific consultations, and home care). Although POCUS
has been recently included in the European curriculum of internal medicine, there
are differences between European internists in its use, ranging from not at all to
well structured educational programs. The use of POCUS needs to be widespread in internal
medicine departments, and to accomplish this we must encourage structured training.
This document details the consensus-based recommendations by the European Federation
of Internal Medicine (EFIM) Ultrasound working group. We establish POCUS core competencies
and clinical settings for internists in a symptom-based approach. We also propose
training requirements, providing a framework for training programs at a national level.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: December 12, 2019
Accepted:
November 21,
2019
Received in revised form:
November 18,
2019
Received:
November 5,
2019
Identification
Copyright
© 2019 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of European Federation of Internal Medicine.
