An Academic Family Physician's Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS) Experience

In family medicine (FM), point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) usage is rising. Clinically, acute outpatient concerns often lends itself to more opportunities to use POCUS. Common scans utilized in the acute, outpatient setting include soft tissue masses, foreign body assessments, preprocedural guidance for incision and drainage and soft tissue mass excisions, deep vein thrombosis (DVT) ultrasound (US), joint effusions, right upper quadrant (RUQ) US assessments to check for gallstones, lung US for respiratory infections (especially in children), shoulder rotator cuff assessments, bladder US, and US assisted/guided procedures such as Baker's cyst aspirations, Carpal tunnel injections, and DeQuervain tenosynovitis injections. The goal of this commentary is to share clinical scenarios that can be helpful to use POCUS in the outpatient setting. With the advent of handheld US, recent Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education FM updates to recommend residents to learn POCUS³, and nationwide efforts spreading POCUS into residencies and primary care departments; I am optimistic that this will inspire and empower primary care physicians to learn and use POCUS effectively to benefit patients where and when they need care the most.