Policy Statement
It is the position of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine that ultrasound should be integrated into the core curriculum of undergraduate medical education.
Background
Medical diagnostic ultrasound has been used by various specialties since the 1950s. Contemporary point of care ultrasound (POCUS) was first researched and utilized by
emergency physicians in the mid 1980s. Emergency physicians have formally defined and pioneered POCUS over the past two decades. Research in a broad array of
applications indicate improved patient care via procedural safety and success (11,13,17), improved diagnostic accuracy (20,21,22), decreased procedural pain (8), decrease time to critical interventions (11, 22), and decreased time to discharge (3).