The Evolution of Cardiovascular Ultrasound: A Review of Cardiac Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS) Across Specialties

Abstract

The use of cardiac point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is now widespread in clinics, emergency departments, and all areas of the hospital. Users include medical trainees, advanced practice practitioners, and attending physicians in many specialties and sub-specialties. Opportunities to learn cardiac POCUS and requirements for training vary across specialties, as does the scope of the cardiac POCUS examination. In this review, we describe both a brief history of how cardiac POCUS emerged from echocardiography and the state of the art across a variety of medical fields.

Keywords: Cardiology; Cardiovascular; Critical care; Echocardiography; Internal medicine; Medical education; POCUS; Point-of-care ultrasound; Ultrasound.