Medical Teacher
ISSN: 0142-159X (Print) 1466-187X (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/imte20
Should medical students be taught ultrasonography? Jonathan E. Dickerson, Katie F. Paul & Pierre Vila To cite this article: Jonathan E. Dickerson, Katie F. Paul & Pierre Vila (2015): Should medical students be taught ultrasonography?, Medical Teacher To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/0142159X.2015.1072269
Published online: 13 Aug 2015.
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Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=imte20 Download by: [Emory University]
Date: 13 February 2016, At: 00:17
2015, 1, Early Online
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Should medical students be taught ultrasonography?
Downloaded by [Emory University] at 00:17 13 February 2016
Dear Sir An enormous amount of time at medical school is spent acquiring key clinical skills. Ultimately, as we take up our Foundation posts, these will be the very skills we rely on dayto-day. However, as technology and modern medicine evolves, can we be sure medical students are keeping pace? Increasingly, doctors with no formal radiology qualifications are using point-of-care ultrasonography across numerous specialties. The use of ultrasound for central and even peripheral venous access is commonplace and increasingly biopsies, joint aspirations and lumbar punctures are being done under ultrasound guidance. It is, therefore, an almost certainty that students rotating through a hospital attachment will encounter ultrasound, especially as the equipment is becoming more compact and affordable. Is there, therefore, already the impetus to bring ultrasonography training into medical school? Gogalniceanu et al. (2010) have demonstrated both the merits and achievability of formal ultrasonography training to medical students and suggested that this should guide curriculum design. Indeed, at Oxford Medical School, ultrasonography has formed part of the Emergency Medicine learning objectives for some time and an afternoon course
ISSN 0142-159X print/ISSN 1466-187X online/15/0000001–1 ß 2015 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.3109/0142159X.2015.1072269
covers abdominal aortic aneurysm screening and focused assessment with sonography in trauma training for all clinical medical students. This elementary course has recently expanded significantly with industry support and has become an integral part of the penultimate year curriculum, involving approximately 150 students per year. One worry with introducing ultrasonography training at an earlier career stage is standardisation and clinical governance. The Royal College of Radiologists (2012) have said that the training of non-radiologists should be to the same standard as those for radiologists. If this were to trickle down to medical students, an urgent review of curricula is necessary to embrace modernity, accompanied by a significant increase in resources. Jonathan E. Dickerson, Katie F. Paul, and Pierre Vila, Medical Sciences Division, University of Oxford, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK. E-mail: [email protected]
Declaration of interest: GE Medical Systems Ltd. provides, without remuneration, ultrasound equipment and personnel for The University of Oxford Clinical Medical School’s Emergency Medicine ultrasonography course. None of the authors are employed by GE Medical Systems Ltd., nor receive any form of compensation from them.
References Gogalniceanu P, Sheena Y, Kashef E, Purkayastha S, Darzi A, Paraskeva P. 2010. Is basic emergency ultrasound training feasible as part of standard undergraduate medical education? J Surg Educ 67(3):152–156. The Royal College of Radiologists. 2012. Ultrasound training recommendations for medical and surgical specialties. 2nd ed. London: The Royal College of Radiologists.
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ISSN: 0142-159X (Print) 1466-187X (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/imte20
Should medical students be taught ultrasonography? Jonathan E. Dickerson, Katie F. Paul & Pierre Vila To cite this article: Jonathan E. Dickerson, Katie F. Paul & Pierre Vila (2015): Should medical students be taught ultrasonography?, Medical Teacher To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/0142159X.2015.1072269
Published online: 13 Aug 2015.
Submit your article to this journal
Article views: 84
View related articles
View Crossmark data
Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=imte20 Download by: [Emory University]
Date: 13 February 2016, At: 00:17
2015, 1, Early Online
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Should medical students be taught ultrasonography?
Downloaded by [Emory University] at 00:17 13 February 2016
Dear Sir An enormous amount of time at medical school is spent acquiring key clinical skills. Ultimately, as we take up our Foundation posts, these will be the very skills we rely on dayto-day. However, as technology and modern medicine evolves, can we be sure medical students are keeping pace? Increasingly, doctors with no formal radiology qualifications are using point-of-care ultrasonography across numerous specialties. The use of ultrasound for central and even peripheral venous access is commonplace and increasingly biopsies, joint aspirations and lumbar punctures are being done under ultrasound guidance. It is, therefore, an almost certainty that students rotating through a hospital attachment will encounter ultrasound, especially as the equipment is becoming more compact and affordable. Is there, therefore, already the impetus to bring ultrasonography training into medical school? Gogalniceanu et al. (2010) have demonstrated both the merits and achievability of formal ultrasonography training to medical students and suggested that this should guide curriculum design. Indeed, at Oxford Medical School, ultrasonography has formed part of the Emergency Medicine learning objectives for some time and an afternoon course
ISSN 0142-159X print/ISSN 1466-187X online/15/0000001–1 ß 2015 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.3109/0142159X.2015.1072269
covers abdominal aortic aneurysm screening and focused assessment with sonography in trauma training for all clinical medical students. This elementary course has recently expanded significantly with industry support and has become an integral part of the penultimate year curriculum, involving approximately 150 students per year. One worry with introducing ultrasonography training at an earlier career stage is standardisation and clinical governance. The Royal College of Radiologists (2012) have said that the training of non-radiologists should be to the same standard as those for radiologists. If this were to trickle down to medical students, an urgent review of curricula is necessary to embrace modernity, accompanied by a significant increase in resources. Jonathan E. Dickerson, Katie F. Paul, and Pierre Vila, Medical Sciences Division, University of Oxford, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK. E-mail: [email protected]
Declaration of interest: GE Medical Systems Ltd. provides, without remuneration, ultrasound equipment and personnel for The University of Oxford Clinical Medical School’s Emergency Medicine ultrasonography course. None of the authors are employed by GE Medical Systems Ltd., nor receive any form of compensation from them.
References Gogalniceanu P, Sheena Y, Kashef E, Purkayastha S, Darzi A, Paraskeva P. 2010. Is basic emergency ultrasound training feasible as part of standard undergraduate medical education? J Surg Educ 67(3):152–156. The Royal College of Radiologists. 2012. Ultrasound training recommendations for medical and surgical specialties. 2nd ed. London: The Royal College of Radiologists.
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