Point of Care Ultrasound (PoCUS) has evolved rapidly over the past two decades and been adopted by many medical specialities, none more so than emergency and critical care physicians. There are significant benefits in both rapid bedside ultrasound diagnosis and safe procedural guidance.
It is, however, our opinion that comprehensive and collaborative PoCUS frameworks are essential to ensure the highest standards of clinical quality and safety. Emphasis is frequently placed upon PoCUS education without adequate governance, infrastructure, administration and quality assurance processes put in place to support this education.
We propose five essential pillars of PoCUS based upon experience establishing a collaborative PoCUS program for emergency and critical care physicians in a sizeable tertiary teaching hospital network. The five pillars are defined as governance, infrastructure, administration, education and quality.