J Anesth Perioper Med. 2018;5(2):97-100. https://doi.org/10.24015/ebcmed.JAPM.2018.0016

The Future of Ultrasound Education: A Medical Student’s Perspective

Brandon Wilson1, Melinda Sharon1, and Joseph Minardi1,2

From the 1Department of Emergency Medicine, 2Department of Medical Education, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA.

Correspondence to Dr. Brandon Wilson at brandon.wilson@hsc.wvu.edu.

EBCMED ID: ebcmed.JAPM.2018.0016 DOI: 10.24015/ebcmed.JAPM.2018.0016


Abstract

Ultrasound has been described as the stethoscope of the future, both excitedly by admirers and jokingly by detractors. While I cannot see the stethoscope ever being fully replaced by the probe, ultrasound is quickly becoming a tool that contemporary medical students and residents are almost as familiar with as they are the bell and diaphragm. However, this is a relatively new development with focused ultrasound education only recently becoming part of some medical school curricula. This is in sharp contrast with the fact that ultrasound is a well-established, safe, and rapid diagnostic tool that dramatically improves both patient care and satisfaction.

Article Type
Opinion

Declaration of Interests
The authors declare no conflicts of interest about this work.

This is an open-access article, published by Evidence Based Communications (EBC). This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format for any lawful purpose. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.