Nontraditional education resources are being used more by point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) educators, a study presented at the 2025 American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM) annual conference found.
Arthur Broadstock, MD, from the University of Cincinnati in Ohio, presented his team’s results, showing that while POCUS educators still hold in-person workshops in high regard, online media resources are being used more for training medical professionals to use the modality.
"I think the fact that a lot of these resources are free and open-access is appealing to educators, as they can disseminate these resources easily to learners, who have a lower barrier to entry to access this knowledge," Broadstock told AuntMinnie.com. "Ultrasound education is also unique in that much of it depends on review of video clips, which is best served through digital platforms rather than through print materials."
Medical educators are continuing to find ways beyond traditional textbooks to train aspiring professionals. This goes for POCUS education as well, where Broadstock said such resources are abundant. However, he pointed out that the extent to which educators use these nontraditional resources is not well known.
Arthur Broadstock, MD, presents research at AIUM 2025 showing how point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) eduactors are using more nontraditional learning resources in their curricula.
Broadstock and colleagues conducted a survey study to better understand what materials POCUS educators prefer to use for training.
Final analysis included 62 completed surveys by educators. The team used a six-point Likert-type scale to gauge the importance of different educational materials as rated by survey respondents.
Educators listed in-person workshops and online media resources as highly important while textbooks were of least importance, Broadstock reported.
| Importance of POCUS educational resources as rated by educators | |
|---|---|
| Resources | Likert score (out of 6) |
| In-person workshops | 5.1 |
| Online media | 4.8 |
| Journal articles | 3.4 |
| eBooks | 2.9 |
| Podcasts | 2.8 |
| Textbooks | 2.1 |
The researchers also examined specific resources that educators use in their curricula. For traditional resources, the following were the most commonly used among educators: Point of Care Ultrasound in Critical Care (100%), Emergency Ultrasound Made Easy (98.4%), and Pediatric Emergency and Critical Care Ultrasound (88.9%).
For nontraditional resources, this trend included the following: Core Ultrasound/5 Minute Sono/Ultrasound of the Week (87.3%), Ultrasound GEL Podcast (65.1%), ACEP Sonoguide (41.9%), and SAEM Academy of Emergency Ultrasound Narrated Lecture Series (34.9%). These findings highlight that there’s a strong reliance on online open-access resources alongside a few key texts, Broadstock said.
He added that in-person workshops may still be held in high regard by educators due to the hands-on nature of ultrasound.
"Performing an ultrasound exam is inherently a psychomotor skill, so in-person training is necessary to build the image acquisition component of POCUS and I think educators understand that, and it was reflected in the rankings," Broadstock told AuntMinnie.com.
He concluded that future research should explore resource use by POCUS learners and assess the quality of digital resources.
“As POCUS education evolves, a blended learning approach combining hands-on experience with high-quality digital materials may provide the most effective training,” he added.
![Examples of ultrasound findings and techniques. (A) Images in a 39-year-old male patient with a mass in the left thigh. The mass is heterogeneous on the B-mode US image (compared with the patient in D) and showed increased microvascularity (superb microvascular imaging [SMI]) and shear-wave elastography (SWE) values. Undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma was diagnosed at biopsy (with pleomorphic rhabdomyosarcoma in surgical specimen). (B) Images in an 18-year-old male patient with a mass in the left leg. The mass is hypoechoic on the B-mode image, with no other findings suggestive of malignancy. The lesion is in contact with the cortex of the tibia, which is slightly irregular. CT revealed a doubtful anteromedial tibial erosion. The microvascular study demonstrated high vascularization, suggestive of malignancy. Periosteal Ewing sarcoma was diagnosed with both histologic and immunohistochemical confirmation. (C) Images in a 69-year-old female patient with a lump growing on the outside of the left leg. Multiple SWE examinations were performed (please note the high values obtained in the measurements, whereas the color map highlights the stiffness relative to adjacent tissues). SMI showed areas of increased vascularization to target for sampling. Undifferentiated spindle cell sarcoma was diagnosed at biopsy, with residual leiomyosarcoma in the surgical specimen after neoadjuvant therapy. (D) Images in a 56-year-old female patient with a mass in the right thigh. The mass is heterogeneous at both B-mode ultrasound (similar to patient A) and MRI (coronal T2-weighted spectral attenuated inversion recovery [SPAIR]; T1-weighted pre-contrast and postcontrast imaging), which even shows uptake after the administration of paramagnetic contrast material, which is traditionally suggestive of malignancy. Low values at SMI and elastography are suggestive of benignity. Spindle cell lipoma was diagnosed at biopsy, with atypical spindle cell lipomatous tumor in the surgical specimen.](https://img.auntminnie.com/mindful/smg/workspaces/default/uploads/2026/08/images-radiol250278fig2.APCFLSvX6p.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&dpr=2&fit=crop&h=167&q=70&w=250)
