Dr Daniel Nevin is a Consultant in Anaesthesia and Pre-Hospital Care, and is the Lead for the Trauma Anaesthesia Group at The Royal London Hospital and London’s Air Ambulance.  He also developed and leads on point-of-care ultrasound for this service. Daniel discusses how findings from PoCUS influences management in many critically injured patients and also describes the importance of having a robust governance system in place to help maintain standards.

Dr Chris Yap is an Emergency Medicine Consultant at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals. He has a diploma in medical US from the University of Teesside and he is a frequent contributor to the POCUS teaching network.  Chris is also the current point-of-care US committee Chair of the Royal College of Emergency medicine.  He talks about problem-solving with POCUS and how it can help avoid unnecessary invasive procedures.  That said, his wise advice is ‘never do POCUS just for the sake of it’.

Dr Muhamad Jasim is a Rheumatology/Acute Medicine Consultant at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust.  He talks about how his ability to use PoCUS is a huge advantage in the assessment of many of his rheumatology patients. Muhamad also emphasises the value of a multidisciplinary approach and the importance of image storage for observation of interval changes.

Dr Giles Cattermole, an emergency medicine consultant at the Princess Royal University Hospital, Orpington, interviews Dr Gabin Mbanjumucjo, a senior clinical fellow at Kings College Hospital, London.  Gabin reveals how, as a newly qualified medic in Rwanda, he used some donated ultrasound machines and immediately realised PoCUS was a game-changer.  Gabin explains how it helped him and his patients, and describes the value of PoCUS for assessing everything from trauma to worm infestation.  The FASH protocol is also discussed.  Listen here to learn more about using PoCUS in a low resource setting.

Dr Sarbjit Clare, MBE, is Deputy Medical Director and Acute Medical Consultant at Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust. She is a renowned pioneer in POCUS, on which she lectures regularly and runs a yearly course.  Sarb has also published a text; Ultrasound for the Generalist – A Guide to Point of Care Imaging (2021).  She is now taking POCUS into the community with her Hospital at Home award-winning project, EPICENTRE.  Sarb explains why POCUS is so essential to her work.

Dr Siri Aas Smedemark is a Danish medical doctor specialising in geriatrics, and is based at Odense University Hospital. She has been using POCUS for five years. Currently, she is conducting a PhD project on focused lung ultrasound during in-home assessments among acutely ill older adults. She has trained and certified acute community nurses in performing focused lung ultrasound during in-home assessments. She also teaches other medical doctors in focused lung ultrasound at Odense University Hospital.  Siri explains how valuable POCUS is when it comes to triaging her poorly cohort.

Norwegian sonographer Victoria Vatsvåg studied for her ultrasound degree in the UK, gained her clinical practice in Ireland, and has been living and working in her hometown of Stavanger, Norway for the past 10 years. In addition to her clinical work as a sonographer she has been teaching ultrasound at both courses and conferences in Norway and abroad. She is also working on her PhD on teleguided ultrasound at the University of Stavanger.  Victoria explains the complexities of supporting practitioners performing POCUS scans in remote settings.

Dr Thomas Løkkegaard is a Danish GP practising in Copenhagen.  He as been using PoCUS for around six or seven years after first performing ultrasound as a hospital-based physician for cardiac assessment. Currently, he is Vice-President of Danish Society of Ultrasound in General Practice, he teaches other GPs how to use PoCUS in their practice, and also has a research post at the University of Aalborg, Copenhagen.  Thomas highlights differences between GPs using PoCUS in the UK and Denmark and he offers top tips on how to keep your colleagues on board if you’re considering introducing ultrasound where you work.