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Specialty (if any): Anatomy, Emergency Medicine

Keywords: Point of care ultrasound, undergraduate medical education, anatomy education

Background: POCUS has become a valuable part of undergraduate medical education, helping students build anatomical understanding and clinical confidence across specialties like Emergency Medicine, Internal Medicine, Anesthesiology, and Obstetrics/Gynecology. Even so, a truly standardized POCUS curriculum is out of reach for many medical schools — limited faculty training, equipment shortages, and packed schedules all get in the way. The consequence is that most students finish their pre-clinical years without any formal ultrasound competency assessment, and that's a significant gap in medical education.

Objectives: 

• Develop a high-quality, de-identified ultrasound image portfolio capturing core anatomical regions, including cardiac windows, hepatobilliary views, FAST exam views, and major MSK joints.

• Pair ultrasound images from one joint of interest (the elbow) with corresponding MRI or CT images to reinforce multi-modality anatomical learning of this joint.

• Support pre-clinical medical education by providing a structured visual resource to complement traditional anatomy instruction.

Design: This project has two parts. The first part involves the creation of a comprehensive POCUS portfolio developed over the course of the Discovery year at UCLA. Ultrasound images for the portfolio were obtained from volunteer medical students during scheduled scanning sessions, using the TMEP-provided Butterfly iQ+ probes. All images have been fully de-identified. A standardized image-quality checklist adapted from existing TMEP POCUS guidelines were used to determine inclusion of images in the final portfolio. The second part of this project focuses on one joint (the elbow) from the completed portfolio, which has been included in a PowerPoint presentation, pairing ultrasound clips with corresponding MRI/CT images, which will be made accessible via: https://pocusanatomy.wixsite.com/pocusinfocus/intro-to-knee-views. This elbow joint has been captured using a Sonosite provided by the UCLA Simulation Center. The MRI/CT images were provided by my faculty mentor, Dr. Chiem. 

Impact/Effectiveness: This project is currently in its development phase, but its anticipated impact is the improvement of anatomical understanding among pre-clinical medical students who use the portfolio to supplement their traditional anatomy labs. The project is designed to increase student familiarity and confidence in identifying key anatomical structures of the elbow across various imaging modalities.

Lessons Learned: A challenge anticipated is the recruitment of a sufficient number of volunteers to obtain representative images across all of the target anatomical regions. Another challenge may be obtaining representative CT/MRI. To address the first problem, participants will be recruited during scheduled scanning sessions, with the faculty mentor available to volunteer as an additional participant if needed. To address the latter issue, my faculty mentor will provide representative images of the elbow as needed. There are no ethical concerns with this project and no patient data will be collected, obviating the need for IRB approval. 

Summary: This project addresses a meaningful gap in pre-clinical medical education by creating a structured, accessible POCUS image portfolio for students and trainees. Pairing ultrasound of the elbow with MRI and CT reinforces multi-modal anatomical learning in a way traditional instruction rarely achieves on its own. From here, the portfolio could grow to cover additional anatomical regions, be integrated into formal anatomy curricula, and serve as a hands-on teaching tool during MS1 sessions — all in service of a broader goal: making POCUS a normal, expected part of undergraduate medical training rather than something students encounter for the first time as residents.