Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 May 22;15(5):e39329.
doi: 10.7759/cureus.39329. eCollection 2023 May.

Implementation of Ultrasound in Preclinical Education at Osteopathic Medical Schools: A Scoping Review

Marianne R Scotti  1 , Dakota C Davis  1 , Riya Patel  1 , Seddrick Weekes  1 , Thomas McNary  2 , Julia Alexander  3
Affiliations

Implementation of Ultrasound in Preclinical Education at Osteopathic Medical Schools: A Scoping Review

Marianne R Scotti et al. Cureus. .

Abstract

Ultrasound (US) is recognized as a practical and safe form of medical imaging that utilizes ultrasound waves to develop images for diagnostic and procedural purposes. The clinical use of US has dramatically increased over recent years, secondary to the ease of use, portability, and functionality of US. The success of point-of-care ultrasound implementation into residency curricula has further underscored the importance of US education and its potential for use earlier in medical instruction. Osteopathic medical education places a significant emphasis on anatomy, thus a scoping review of the literature regarding the use of US in osteopathic preclinical years is warranted. The goal of this scoping study is to assess the current literature regarding the implementation and benefit of US instruction in preclinical osteopathic medical curricula. Four resources were utilized for the review, including PubMed, Google Scholar, JOM (formerly JAOA), and AMED, each with contiguous criteria for applicable literature. The searches were performed before the end of January 2023. Inclusion criteria for researched literature focused on osteopathic preclinical utilization of US technologies. Articles were subsequently evaluated using thematic and contextual analysis. Of the 2,968 articles evaluated, 22 articles met the inclusion criteria. There were several themes associated with the implementation of US within osteopathic curricula, including positive student perceptions of the modality, improved learning outcomes, and adaptations of US instruction into anatomical sciences courses. There is a need for continued research regarding US implementation in preclinical osteopathic medical school education, including within anatomical sciences. A minority of osteopathic schools have published details regarding how US has been applied in their curriculum.

Keywords: anatomy; medical school education; osteopathic medical school; scoping study; ultrasound; ultrasound education.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Flow diagram of literature search documenting processes utilized for research acquisition.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Point-of-care ultrasonography. Moore CL, Copel JA. N Engl J Med. 2011;364:749–757. - PubMed
    1. Ultrafest: a novel approach to ultrasound in medical education leads to improvement in written and clinical examinations. Connolly K, Beier L, Langdorf MI, Anderson CL, Fox JC. West J Emerg Med. 2015;16:143–148. - PMC - PubMed
    1. American Academy of Emergency Medicine position statement: ultrasound should be integrated into undergraduate medical education curriculum. Soucy ZP, Mills LD. J Emerg Med. 2015;49:89–90. - PubMed
    1. Feasibility and accuracy of point-of-care pocket-size ultrasonography performed by medical students. Andersen GN, Viset A, Mjølstad OC, Salvesen O, Dalen H, Haugen BO. BMC Med Educ. 2014;14:156. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ultrasound imaging in medical student education: impact on learning anatomy and physical diagnosis. So S, Patel RM, Orebaugh SL. Anat Sci Educ. 2017;10:176–189. - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources