Ready for prime time. Although I had considered POCUS to be a relatively new and untested technology for primary care settings, my reading of the POCUS article has convinced me that POCUS is now ready for widespread deployment in family medicine office practice. Bornemann and colleagues review the evidence for the use of POCUS in 4 areas: the heart, the lung, screening for abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), and the diagnosis of deep vein thrombosis. They provide more than 30 references that support the accuracy and effectiveness of the use of POCUS by FPs for these areas. The equipment is affordable, there is ample evidence of accuracy and effectiveness, and, as they note, a curriculum for FP training has been published.
I certainly hope that POCUS continues to make its way into FPs’ offices. It would certainly help patients like the one I saw 2 weeks ago, and it would help us to screen for AAA in older male smokers, as recommended by the US Preventive Services Task Force.
I am delighted to see FP pioneers working to advance the use of POCUS in family medicine. Hopefully, it will become a standard part of family medicine training and practice sooner, rather than later.