Ultrasound Fellowship

The Emergency Ultrasound Fellowship curriculum includes educational, teaching and clinical components.

Educational Component

Fellows devote 24 hours per week to emergency ultrasound training. This time is dedicated to image acquisition (independently, with residents, and with directors), scan review, lecturing, participation and development of outside courses, and scholarly activity.

Weekly lectures and video review will cover all of the core and advanced applications of emergency ultrasound, including: cardiac, renal, trauma, venous thrombosis, biliary, obstetric, vascular access, soft tissue, pulmonary, volume assessment, ocular, undifferentiated hypotension, ultrasound guidance of procedures, and musculoskeletal. To supplement these lectures the fellow will be expected to complete reading assignments from core Emergency Ultrasound textbooks and journal articles.

The weekly video review sessions will serve as an opportunity to assess the fellow's progress in regards to image acquisition and interpretation. This important component will also allow the fellow to gain an appreciation for the administrative aspects of emergency ultrasound including image storage, QA, faculty credentialing, and billing while exposing the fellow to interesting cases that they may have not been involved in.

The fellow is expected to complete and review a minimum of 800 scans during the course of the fellowship. These scans will be performed during dedicated independent scanning shifts, scanning shifts with core faculty, and clinical shifts, and must be documented in our ultrasound database.

Independent scanning shifts of 8 hour duration will be scheduled weekly. During these shifts the fellow will also be expected to supervise emergency medicine residents on the ultrasound rotation. In addition to these shifts, the fellow will have 8 hours a week of supervised scanning with the core faculty. These supervised shifts will provide the opportunity for hands on bedside training and will also serve as a way to assess the fellow's progress.

Furthermore, the fellow will have the opportunity to do 2 week rotations with the Departments of Cardiology and OB/GYN. These rotations are meant to provide the fellow with supplemental training from experts in cardiac and obstetrical sonography.

During the course of the fellowship the fellow is expected to initiate an emergency ultrasound research project and to assist with current ongoing research.

Finally, the Ultrasound Section will meet on a quarterly basis for Journal club to review recent literature and research updates.

Teaching Component

Teaching and education is an essential component to the fellowship and the fellow is expected to become an integral part of emergency ultrasound education in the OHSU Department of Emergency Medicine.

Fellows assist core faculty in the training and education of faculty, residents and medical students. Following initial training the fellow will be expected to lead didactic sessions on core emergency ultrasound applications and to supervise residents and medical students during scanning shifts.

Furthermore, fellows assist core faculty with local and regional courses as well as intra-hospital education of other departments.

Clinical Component

Fellows receive a 1-year faculty appointment at the Instructor level in the OHSU Department of Emergency Medicine and will be scheduled to work 64 clinical hours per month in the OHSU ED or affiliated ED. In addition, the fellow may attend administrative, education, and research department meetings.