Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) has become an indispensable tool in modern healthcare, enhancing diagnostic accuracy, clinical efficiency, and patient safety. By enabling providers to
access real-time imaging, POCUS facilitates faster, better-informed clinical decisions in diverse settings, from emergency departments to primary care clinics. POCUS is portable, cost-effective, and readily accessible, making it especially valuable in resource-limited and high-stakes environments. Due to its importance, we have developed a POCUS/ Critical Care Curriculum for house staff at Tamale Teaching Hospital.
The POCUS and critical care curriculum will focus on developing proficiency in point-of-care ultrasound and emergency critical resuscitation, including labs and EKGs. The curriculum comprises three phases: Phase 1: Pre-Course Curriculum: Participants will engage in asynchronous, self-guided learning and virtual telelectures. Phase 2: On-Site Training The hands-on portion of the curriculum will be delivered over a five-day intensive in-person session at TTH. This phase focuses on building house staff competency in the core ultrasound domains, including cardiac, pulmonary, renal, aorta, abdominal, and DVT assessments. We will use the Butterfly system to capture and store images for immediate feedback and learning. Once staff demonstrate proficiency with normal imaging, we will advance to simulation training at the Tamale Simulation Center. Here, participants will interpret real-time lab results, perform ultrasounds, and manage abnormal findings in a controlled environment. This phase will emphasize situational awareness, clinical context, and rapid decision-making skills. Finally, we will introduce ultrasound administration, setting up quality assurance (QA) protocols to maintain and assess ultrasound standards over time. Phase 3: Post-Course Support and Quality Assurance Following the in-person training, ongoing education and QA will be conducted virtually.
In collaboration with Dr. Al Hassan at Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH) in Ghana, our team has identified a need for a critical care curriculum focused on ultrasound training and key clinical skills such as EKG and ABG interpretation, with an emphasis on cardiac and critical care ultrasound. Currently, TTH lacks a phased array probe, and cardiac ultrasound is not part of their standard training. We aim to provide the necessary equipment and curriculum to introduce cardiac ultrasound, expose house staff to critical care scenarios, and integrate emergency medicine into their learning
environment. This curriculum is designed to prepare house staff from various specialties, especially surgical, to manage critical care needs and emergencies seen across medical fields.
Our expected impact is:
1. Sustainability and Knowledge Transfer – By building a strong base of house staff proficient in POCUS, we aim to establish a culture of skill-sharing, where trained staff can mentor incoming cohorts.
2. Cross-Institutional Collaboration – Following the in-person training, ongoing education and QA will be conducted virtually through an online platform. We aim to establish a joint QA (Quality Assurance) series, where scans performed at TTH can be reviewed in real-time, allowing for continued support and case-based learning. We envision this partnership evolving into a lasting, collaborative network for quality ultrasound education and patient care.
Through the Doximity Foundation Grant, we were able to teach point of care ultrasound (POCUS) to physicians at Tamale Teaching Hospital in Tamale, Ghana. We provided a POCUS lecture series, hands-on POCUS simulation sessions, and assisted with live patient scanning for the Emergency Medicine and Internal Medicine Departments. POCUS is an amazing resource for the patients in Tamale as it allows them rapid, portable, and cheap imaging which guides their management and treatment. We plan to continue this partnership throughout, and hope to be able to go back in the future for future educational sessions.
