Holiday Newsletter

December 30th, 2015

Happy Holidays from CEUS!

As the year winds down I am writing to thank everyone for their patience in our recent transition to the new CEUS website and the many other changes that have been taking place over the past few months.

Read below for updates on many of the new initiatives we have been working on and where we are headed in 2016. I am very excited to represent such a progressive and practical society.

One of the main priorities of the society is to get the new certification tracks up and running soon. The Advanced Applications Tracks are currently being beta tested and we are forming committees for tracks in Pediatrics, Family / Rural Medicine , General Surgery / Trauma and for Nurses / Paramedics. We hope to see each of these tracks as part of CEUS in 2016.

We have improved the functionality of the website with online Core IP submissions and payments, the ability to download our Core examination series directly from the site and several other updates. If you haven't done so please login or join.

We are also still looking for members to form or lead our Competency, Accreditation and Research Committees. Medical student and resident POCUS interest groups are also starting to take shape.

If you are interested in volunteering to help with any of our initiatives please contact the relevant committee chairs or anytime.

In the spirit of the season let's remember that we all want the same thing for our patients: to have POCUS as part of their care in the safest and most efficient way possible everywhere across our great country!

I hope you all have a safe and happy holiday season and as always, keep the standards high into the new year!

Chuck Wurster
President CEUS

Advanced Applications Tracks

CEUS has developed a certification package for expanded point-of-care ultrasound applications which should be ready for release this winter. Along with recommendations for required scans there are new written, practical, and visual exams.

Clinicians may choose to obtain certification in one or multiple application pathways including: Resuscitation (cardiac, IVC, pulmonary), Diagnostic (DVT, gallbladder, bladder, renal, ocular), and MSK (soft tissue, joints, fractures, foreign body).

New instructor and provider designations have been created and educators from across Canada have been recruited to review the new packages and help supervise those looking to obtain certification.

For more information go to the advanced application section of the CEUS website.

Pediatric Emergency Medicine (PEM) Certification Track

We are still looking for members to form a committee to help define criteria for a PEM POCUS Certification stream.

Beginning in the new year, this group will define both Core and Advanced POCUS indications to treat our pediatric emergency patients. This will then lead to a detailed certification process with scanning requirements and the CEUS standard three part examination series to determine competency.

If you are interested in joining this exciting project, please email the committee chair, Dr. Charisse Kwan at .

Family Medicine / Rural Medicine Certification Track

We are looking for interested members to help form this committee.

This committee will address the unique issues of physicians working in rural and isolated communities as well as primary care physicians who want to use POCUS in their office. A training pathway for POCUS during family medicine residency will also be addressed.

If you are interested in joining this committee please contact .

General Surgery / Trauma Certification Track

CEUS is looking for members to form a unique committee to create a certification track for our surgical colleagues who provide trauma care and resuscitation.

This committee will define the core indications essential to trauma care from a surgical point of view, and develop scanning requirements and an examination series to ensure that POCUS is used safely in this environment.

If you are interested in joining this committee (or know a colleague who might be) please contact the committee chair, Dr. Lawrence Gillman at .

Allied Health Certification Tracks

We are looking for members interested in developing certification tracks specific to nursing and pre-hospital medicine.

POCUS is being used more and more by non-physicians and CEUS would like to support these endeavours by providing clear certification pathways for nurses and paramedics who wish to use POCUS in patient care.

If you are interested in joining this committee please contact the chair Dr. Stéphane Rhein at .

Website Updates

Our News Section is now up and running and even has a few posts! This newsletter will be copied here each time it is published.

We are now exclusively accepting Core IP requests via our website interface only. Written / scanned requests will no longer be accepted.

Payments for certificates are also all made electronically via Paypal and we no longer will accept mailed cheques.

All Core IP certificates contain our new logo and a candidate IP number. These are emailed as a secure PDF.

The entire Core Examination Series can now be downloaded directly from the CEUS website on our downloads page. You must be registered on the site and logged in to use this service. To have access to the Visual Examination you must have completed a confidentiality agreement (available on the downloads page) and returned to us at .

The POCUS Courses page has been updated to include some new courses, both basic and advanced.

We now also have a page outlining some tips to give the Core Examination Series for the first time.

More updates to come including:

Updated Articles / Books sections to include up-to-date articles and an online journal club
Pages dedicated to the new certification tracks, committees and interest groups
Online examinations / CME

If you any have suggestions about how you think we can improve our website please post a suggestion to our web design discussionpage.

Competency Committee

CEUS has set the standard for how a practitioner is deemed competent to use POCUS in Canada. However, as more education research is performed every day we want to make sure that what we do is as current as possible.

This committee will examine and refine our certification processes and examination series to ensure that we are doing things the right way.

If this committee interests you please contact . For those interested in chairing this committee a letter of intent would also be very helpful.

Accreditation Committee

This committee will examine the possibility of deeming POCUS residency training equivalent to CEUS certification.

While we feel that our certification tracks is the strongest ways to ensure the safe practice for POCUS independently, many residency programs have developed alternative steps to achieving the same goals.

CEUS "Accreditation" of a residency training program will consider a program of such high quality that graduating residents will be awarded a CEUS certificate upon completion of that program's POCUS training component.

If this committee interests you please contact . For those interested in chairing this committee a letter of intent would also be very helpful.

Research Committee

Everyday new projects generate data that will shape how we use POCUS in the coming decades. CEUS would like to form a committee to promote research that is specific to how we define and assess POCUS competency. This committee will also function to coordinate contacts and collaboration between researchers in all aspects of POCUS.

If this committee interests you please contact . For those interested in chairing this committee a letter of intent would also be very helpful.

Medical Student POCUS Interest Group

As the integration of POCUS into undergraduate medical education expands across Canada, CEUS would like to invite medical students to help shape how POCUS is being used by medical students now and into the future.

Please send an email to if you would like to help form a CEUS medical student POCUS group or volunteer to assist with any of our other committees.

Residency POCUS Interest Group

The input of trainees is always extremely valuable. Sometimes it is difficulty for staff who have been practising for many years to remember what it was like to be learning something for the first time. As the use of POCUS expands to almost every residency training program, how we teach it and prepare our residents for practice is critical.

If you would like to join CEUS in shaping resident POCUS education please contact us at to become part of the residency interest group or any of our other committees.