Economical POCUS machine?

[Metamorphosis.DO]

first, I know how crazy this sounds.

I love US. I’m highly interested in FM. Our school gives periodic US training as part of the curriculum and I hope to become as proficient as possible to get a leg up in residency. I understand most FM residencies are starting to include POCUS in the curriculem which is great and I plan to apply to only programs that have this available. I think it’s an incredible tool to have to rule out/identity life-threatening conditions and potentially avoid longer work-ups, etc until a formal imaging study can be made. Not at all replacing the role of rads or a good US tech. Just making outpatient evaluation more thorough and safer. I honestly wouldn‘t care too much about the ROI on the US equipment I have in the future either.

anyway, as a currently poor medical student not having access to US and hoping to get some extra practice in before going to clerkship, does anyone know of an economical US machine or where I could get my hands on one? No budget necessarily. Just looking around. Wether it be a transducer compatible with an iPad or iPhone, or a small machine, anything?

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[Ironheme]

Butterfly IQ - decent quality, one of the more affordable ultrasound options

 

[Metamorphosis.DO]

Butterfly IQ - decent quality, one of the more affordable ultrasound options

nice! There goes part of my tax refund. 😆

 

[Telangiectasias7]

I've been using the Butterfly IQ since my intern year. My program does zero training so with their education and independent reading I've self taught. The more you use it and practice the better you get. I'd say it's a worthwhile investment. If you use it with an iPad image quality is better than the iPhone.

 

[Ironheme]

I've been using the Butterfly IQ since my intern year. My program does zero training so with their education and independent reading I've self taught. The more you use it and practice the better you get. I'd say it's a worthwhile investment. If you use it with an iPad image quality is better than the iPhone.

How do you feel self-teaching is going?

 

[hallowmann]

How do you feel self-teaching is going?

It's doable, but I liberally use training videos online. Certain things are easy enough to do with even basic instruction, like IVC compressibility, LE DVT survey and abdominal gutters, simple OB evals (heart, position, etc), etc. Easiest to do on inpatients, harder to incorporate into a busy clinic. I've only rarely used where it significantly impacted care decision, but mostly just to confirm my initial suspicion/plan, I can't speak to practicality/utility of it in that way, maybe if I was better trained with it.

 

[topraman]

Great for guided learning, brief in person, mostly remote. Started by residency faculty who wrote the AAFP position statement on US training in FM residency. Use CME funds

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[Telangiectasias7]

How do you feel self-teaching is going?

Their online platform is good. Videos and tips are good. Difficulty is being able to practice. Techs have tons of practice because that's all they do. Compared to them, we will never have that many patients so I'd say I'm more comfortable with some things, like IJ for central line placement vs. joint injections. Class would be better obviously but again all depends on how much you get to use it.

 

[Ironheme]

It's doable, but I liberally use training videos online. Certain things are easy enough to do with even basic instruction, like IVC compressibility, LE DVT survey and abdominal gutters, simple OB evals (heart, position, etc), etc. Easiest to do on inpatients, harder to incorporate into a busy clinic. I've only rarely used where it significantly impacted care decision, but mostly just to confirm my initial suspicion/plan, I can't speak to practicality/utility of it in that way, maybe if I was better trained with it.

That's the hardest part is incorporation into busy clinic, particularly the set up time of turning on/off, logging in/off.