. 2022 Jul 27;14(1):31.

doi: 10.1186/s13089-022-00279-1.

International consensus conference recommendations on ultrasound education for undergraduate medical students

Richard A Hoppmann¹, Jeanette Mladenovic², Lawrence Melniker³, Radu Badea⁴, Michael Blaivas⁵, Miguel Montorfano⁶, Alfred Abuhamad⁷, Vicki Noble⁸, Arif Hussain⁹, Gregor Prosen¹⁰, Tomás Villen¹¹, Gabriele Via¹², Ramon Nogue¹³, Craig Goodmurphy¹⁴, Marcus Bastos¹⁵, G Stephen Nace¹⁶, Giovanni Volpicelli¹⁷, Richard J Wakefield¹⁸, Steve Wilson¹⁹, Anjali Bhagra²⁰, Jongyeol Kim²¹, David Bahner²², Chris Fox²³, Ruth Riley²⁴, Peter Steinmetz²⁵, Bret P Nelson²⁶, John Pellerito²⁷, Levon N Nazarian²⁸, L Britt Wilson²⁹, Irene W Y Ma³⁰, David Amponsah³¹, Keith R Barron³², Renee K Dversdal³³, Mike Wagner³⁴, Anthony J Dean³⁵, David Tierney³⁶, James W Tsung³⁷, Paula Nocera³⁸, José Pazeli³⁹, Rachel Liu⁴⁰, Susanna Price⁴¹, Luca Neri⁴², Barbara Piccirillo⁴³, Adi Osman⁴⁴, Vaughan Lee⁴⁵, Nitha Naqvi⁴⁶, Tomislav Petrovic⁴⁷, Paul Bornemann⁴⁸, Maxime Valois⁴⁹, Jean-Francoise Lanctot⁴⁹, Robert Haddad⁵⁰, Deepak Govil⁵¹, Laura A Hurtado⁵², Vi Am Dinh⁵³, Robert M DePhilip⁵⁴, Beatrice Hoffmann⁵⁵, Resa E Lewiss⁵⁶, Nayana A Parange⁵⁷, Akira Nishisaki⁵⁸, Stephanie J Doniger⁵⁹, Paul Dallas⁶⁰, Kevin Bergman⁶¹, J Oscar Barahona⁶², Ximena Wortsman⁶³, R Stephen Smith⁶⁴, Craig A Sisson⁶⁵, James Palma⁶⁶, Mike Mallin⁶⁷, Liju Ahmed⁶⁸, Hassan Mustafa⁶⁹

Affiliations

¹ Internal Medicine, University of South Carolina School of Medicine, 6311 Garners Ferry Road, Bldg 3, Room 306, Columbia, SC, 29209, USA. Richard.Hoppmann@uscmed.sc.edu.
² Foundation for the Advancement of International Medical Education and Research, Philadelphia, USA.
³ Quality Emergency Department, NewYork-Presbyterian Health System, New York, USA.
⁴ Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology, Iuliu Hatieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
⁵ Internal Medicine, University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Columbia, USA.
⁶ Ultrasound and Doppler Department, Hospital de Emergencias "Dr. Clemente Alvarez", Rosario, Argentina.
⁷ Eastern Virginia School of Medicine, Norfolk, USA.
⁸ Emergency Medicine, University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, Cleveland, USA.
⁹ Cardiac Critical Care, King Abdulaziz Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
¹⁰ Emergency Medicine, University Medical Centre Maribor, Maribor, Slovenia.
¹¹ Francisco de Vitoria University School of Medicine, Madrid, Spain.
¹² Department of Cardiac Anesthesia and Intensive Care, Istituto Cardiocentro Ticino, Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale, Lugano, Switzerland.
¹³ Emergency Medicine, University of Lleida School of Medicine, Lleida, Spain.
¹⁴ Ultrasound Education, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, USA.
¹⁵ Ultrasound Point of Care, Faculdade de Ciências Médicas e da Saúde de Juiz de Fora - SUPREMA, Juiz de Fora, Brazil.
¹⁶ Medical Education and Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, USA.
¹⁷ Internal Medicine, Emergency Medicine, San Luigi Gonzaga University Hospital, Turin, Italy.
¹⁸ Rheumatology, University of Leeds, Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust, Leeds, UK.
¹⁹ University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Columbia, USA.
²⁰ Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, USA.
²¹ Neurology, School of Medicine Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, USA.
²² Department of Emergency Medicine, The Ohio State University, Columbus, USA.
²³ Department Emergency Medicine, University of California Irvine, Irvine, USA.
²⁴ Library Services, University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Columbia, USA.
²⁵ Family Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
²⁶ Emergency Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, USA.
²⁷ Radiology and Science Education, Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell Health, Manhasset, USA.
²⁸ Radiology, Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, USA.
²⁹ Physiology, University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Columbia, USA.
³⁰ Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada.
³¹ Department of Emergency Medicine, Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, USA.
³² Department of Internal Medicine, University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Columbia, USA.
³³ Internal Medicine, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, USA.
³⁴ Medicine, University of South Carolina School of Medicine-Greenville, Greenville, USA.
³⁵ Emeritus Department of Emergency Medicine, Perelman University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, USA.
³⁶ Internal Medicine, Abbott Northwestern Hospital, Minneapolis, USA.
³⁷ Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, USA.
³⁸ Anesthesiologist, Hospital Sírio Libanês, São Paulo, Brazil.
³⁹ Nephology and Critical Care, Barbacena's School of Medicine, Barbacena, Brazil.
⁴⁰ Emergency Medicine, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, USA.
⁴¹ Cardiology and Intensive Care, Royal Brompton Hospital, London, England.
⁴² Emergency and Intensive Care Medicine, King Fahad Specialist Hospital Dammam, Ad Dammām, Saudi Arabia.
⁴³ New York Institute of Technology, Bellmore, USA.
⁴⁴ Emergency Physician & ED Critical Care, Trauma & Emergency Department, Hospital Raja Permaisuri, Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia.
⁴⁵ Medical Education, University of South Alabama College of Medicine, Mobile, USA.
⁴⁶ Royal Brompton Hospital Part of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, London, England.
⁴⁷ Hôpitaux de Paris, Bobigny, France.
⁴⁸ Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Columbia, USA.
⁴⁹ Medicine, McGill and Sherbrooke Universities, Montreal, Canada.
⁵⁰ Ultrasound Education - Ultrasound Institute, University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Columbia, USA.
⁵¹ Critical Care Medicine, Medanta - The Medicity, Gurgaon, India.
⁵² Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
⁵³ Emergency Medicine and Internal Medicine, Loma Linda University Medical Center, Loma Linda, USA.
⁵⁴ Emeritus Biomedical Education and Anatomy, The Ohio State University, Columbus, USA.
⁵⁵ Department of Emergency Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.
⁵⁶ Emergency Medicine and Radiology, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, USA.
⁵⁷ Medical Sonography, University of South Australia Allied Health and Human Performance, Adelaide, Australia.
⁵⁸ Anesthesia, Critical Care, and Pediatrics, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, USA.
⁵⁹ Pediatric Emergency Medicine, Children's Hospital in Orange California, Orange, USA.
⁶⁰ Internal Medicine, Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, Roanoke, USA.
⁶¹ Family and Community Medicine, University of California - San Francisco, Martinez, USA.
⁶² Greenwich Ultrasound Services, Greenwich Ultrasound Associates, PC, Greenwich, USA.
⁶³ Department of Dermatology, Faculty of Medicine, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
⁶⁴ Surgery, University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, USA.
⁶⁵ Emergency Medicine, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, USA.
⁶⁶ Military and Emergency Medicine, F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, USA.
⁶⁷ , Salt Lake City, USA.
⁶⁸ King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, Madinah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
⁶⁹ Internal Medicine, University of Manitoba, Manitoba, Canada.

PMID: 35895165
PMCID: PMC9329507
DOI: 10.1186/s13089-022-00279-1

International consensus conference recommendations on ultrasound education for undergraduate medical students

Richard A Hoppmann et al. Ultrasound J. 2022.

. 2022 Jul 27;14(1):31.

doi: 10.1186/s13089-022-00279-1.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Internal Medicine, University of South Carolina School of Medicine, 6311 Garners Ferry Road, Bldg 3, Room 306, Columbia, SC, 29209, USA. Richard.Hoppmann@uscmed.sc.edu.
² Foundation for the Advancement of International Medical Education and Research, Philadelphia, USA.
³ Quality Emergency Department, NewYork-Presbyterian Health System, New York, USA.
⁴ Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology, Iuliu Hatieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
⁵ Internal Medicine, University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Columbia, USA.
⁶ Ultrasound and Doppler Department, Hospital de Emergencias "Dr. Clemente Alvarez", Rosario, Argentina.
⁷ Eastern Virginia School of Medicine, Norfolk, USA.
⁸ Emergency Medicine, University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, Cleveland, USA.
⁹ Cardiac Critical Care, King Abdulaziz Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
¹⁰ Emergency Medicine, University Medical Centre Maribor, Maribor, Slovenia.
¹¹ Francisco de Vitoria University School of Medicine, Madrid, Spain.
¹² Department of Cardiac Anesthesia and Intensive Care, Istituto Cardiocentro Ticino, Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale, Lugano, Switzerland.
¹³ Emergency Medicine, University of Lleida School of Medicine, Lleida, Spain.
¹⁴ Ultrasound Education, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, USA.
¹⁵ Ultrasound Point of Care, Faculdade de Ciências Médicas e da Saúde de Juiz de Fora - SUPREMA, Juiz de Fora, Brazil.
¹⁶ Medical Education and Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, USA.
¹⁷ Internal Medicine, Emergency Medicine, San Luigi Gonzaga University Hospital, Turin, Italy.
¹⁸ Rheumatology, University of Leeds, Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust, Leeds, UK.
¹⁹ University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Columbia, USA.
²⁰ Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, USA.
²¹ Neurology, School of Medicine Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, USA.
²² Department of Emergency Medicine, The Ohio State University, Columbus, USA.
²³ Department Emergency Medicine, University of California Irvine, Irvine, USA.
²⁴ Library Services, University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Columbia, USA.
²⁵ Family Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
²⁶ Emergency Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, USA.
²⁷ Radiology and Science Education, Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell Health, Manhasset, USA.
²⁸ Radiology, Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, USA.
²⁹ Physiology, University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Columbia, USA.
³⁰ Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada.
³¹ Department of Emergency Medicine, Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, USA.
³² Department of Internal Medicine, University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Columbia, USA.
³³ Internal Medicine, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, USA.
³⁴ Medicine, University of South Carolina School of Medicine-Greenville, Greenville, USA.
³⁵ Emeritus Department of Emergency Medicine, Perelman University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, USA.
³⁶ Internal Medicine, Abbott Northwestern Hospital, Minneapolis, USA.
³⁷ Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, USA.
³⁸ Anesthesiologist, Hospital Sírio Libanês, São Paulo, Brazil.
³⁹ Nephology and Critical Care, Barbacena's School of Medicine, Barbacena, Brazil.
⁴⁰ Emergency Medicine, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, USA.
⁴¹ Cardiology and Intensive Care, Royal Brompton Hospital, London, England.
⁴² Emergency and Intensive Care Medicine, King Fahad Specialist Hospital Dammam, Ad Dammām, Saudi Arabia.
⁴³ New York Institute of Technology, Bellmore, USA.
⁴⁴ Emergency Physician & ED Critical Care, Trauma & Emergency Department, Hospital Raja Permaisuri, Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia.
⁴⁵ Medical Education, University of South Alabama College of Medicine, Mobile, USA.
⁴⁶ Royal Brompton Hospital Part of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, London, England.
⁴⁷ Hôpitaux de Paris, Bobigny, France.
⁴⁸ Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Columbia, USA.
⁴⁹ Medicine, McGill and Sherbrooke Universities, Montreal, Canada.
⁵⁰ Ultrasound Education - Ultrasound Institute, University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Columbia, USA.
⁵¹ Critical Care Medicine, Medanta - The Medicity, Gurgaon, India.
⁵² Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
⁵³ Emergency Medicine and Internal Medicine, Loma Linda University Medical Center, Loma Linda, USA.
⁵⁴ Emeritus Biomedical Education and Anatomy, The Ohio State University, Columbus, USA.
⁵⁵ Department of Emergency Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.
⁵⁶ Emergency Medicine and Radiology, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, USA.
⁵⁷ Medical Sonography, University of South Australia Allied Health and Human Performance, Adelaide, Australia.
⁵⁸ Anesthesia, Critical Care, and Pediatrics, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, USA.
⁵⁹ Pediatric Emergency Medicine, Children's Hospital in Orange California, Orange, USA.
⁶⁰ Internal Medicine, Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, Roanoke, USA.
⁶¹ Family and Community Medicine, University of California - San Francisco, Martinez, USA.
⁶² Greenwich Ultrasound Services, Greenwich Ultrasound Associates, PC, Greenwich, USA.
⁶³ Department of Dermatology, Faculty of Medicine, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
⁶⁴ Surgery, University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, USA.
⁶⁵ Emergency Medicine, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, USA.
⁶⁶ Military and Emergency Medicine, F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, USA.
⁶⁷ , Salt Lake City, USA.
⁶⁸ King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, Madinah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
⁶⁹ Internal Medicine, University of Manitoba, Manitoba, Canada.

PMID: 35895165
PMCID: PMC9329507
DOI: 10.1186/s13089-022-00279-1

Abstract

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to provide expert consensus recommendations to establish a global ultrasound curriculum for undergraduate medical students.

Methods: 64 multi-disciplinary ultrasound experts from 16 countries, 50 multi-disciplinary ultrasound consultants, and 21 medical students and residents contributed to these recommendations. A modified Delphi consensus method was used that included a systematic literature search, evaluation of the quality of literature by the GRADE system, and the RAND appropriateness method for panel judgment and consensus decisions. The process included four in-person international discussion sessions and two rounds of online voting.

Results: A total of 332 consensus conference statements in four curricular domains were considered: (1) curricular scope (4 statements), (2) curricular rationale (10 statements), (3) curricular characteristics (14 statements), and (4) curricular content (304 statements). Of these 332 statements, 145 were recommended, 126 were strongly recommended, and 61 were not recommended. Important aspects of an undergraduate ultrasound curriculum identified include curricular integration across the basic and clinical sciences and a competency and entrustable professional activity-based model. The curriculum should form the foundation of a life-long continuum of ultrasound education that prepares students for advanced training and patient care. In addition, the curriculum should complement and support the medical school curriculum as a whole with enhanced understanding of anatomy, physiology, pathophysiological processes and clinical practice without displacing other important undergraduate learning. The content of the curriculum should be appropriate for the medical student level of training, evidence and expert opinion based, and include ongoing collaborative research and development to ensure optimum educational value and patient care.

Conclusions: The international consensus conference has provided the first comprehensive document of recommendations for a basic ultrasound curriculum. The document reflects the opinion of a diverse and representative group of international expert ultrasound practitioners, educators, and learners. These recommendations can standardize undergraduate medical student ultrasound education while serving as a basis for additional research in medical education and the application of ultrasound in clinical practice.

Keywords: Curriculum recommendations; Education; International consensus conference; Medical student; Ultrasound; Undergraduate.

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Conflict of interest statement

The only authors declaring competing interests are listed below with their corresponding disclosure. All other authors declare that they have no competing interests. Richard Hoppmann, Patent Royalties on University of South Carolina license with EchoNous. Jeanette Mladenovic, Medical Advisory Board for EchoNous. Michael Blaivas, Consulting for Anavasi Diagnostics, Mendaera, and Intuitap. Bret P. Nelson, Medical Advisory Boards of DIA Imaging Analysis Ltd and EchoNous. Keith Reeves Barron Jr, Medical Advisory Board for EchoNous. Renee K Dversdal, Serves as Chief Medical Officer for Vave Health. David Tierney, Medical Advisory Board for EchoNous. James W. Tsung, Consultant for GE Healthcare and DIA Imaging Analysis Ltd. Paula Nocera, Associate on Cardiopriori Learning Platform. Rachel Liu, Consultant for Philips Healthcare and Caption Health and Medical Advisory Board for POCUSPro. Maxime Valois, Founding Partner in Sonoscope/EGLS Courses. Jean-Francois Lanctot, Founding Partner in Sonoscope/EGLS Courses. Resa E Lewiss, Medical Advisory Board for EchoNous. Kevin Bergman, Partner in Global Ultrasound Institute. Ximena Wortsman, Speaker Bureau of AbbVie.

Figures

**Fig. 1**
A PubMed search of articles using *ultrasound education medical school* as the query

**Fig. 2**
A PubMed search of articles using *ultrasound education postgraduate* as the query

**Fig. 3**
Literature search for relevant records

See this image and copyright information in PMC

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International consensus conference recommendations on ultrasound education for undergraduate medical students

Affiliations

International consensus conference recommendations on ultrasound education for undergraduate medical students

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