Creating an Ultrasound Scholarly Concentration Program for Medical Students

INTRODUCTION: Point of care ultrasound (POCUS) is increasingly prevalent and standardized in undergraduate medical education (UME); however, roughly 25% of United States medical schools lack an ultrasound curriculum. One of the commonly cited barriers to ultrasound training in UME is faculty time resources. Here, we describe an ultrasound scholarly concentration program (SCP) designed to provide medical students with ultrasound opportunities in clinical and scholarly domains, while reducing the need for extensive faculty resources. METHODS: SCPs at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine have 3 requirements: an elective course, a longitudinal portfolio, and a final scholarly project. Thus, the ultrasound SCP was designed to comprise an introductory clinical elective to ultrasound, development of a longitudinal scan portfolio, and a final scholarly project in ultrasound related research or educational innovation. A review of the literature and search of the top 50 US medical schools by US News & World Report was performed to assess the novelty of the ultrasound SCP. RESULTS: To the best of our knowledge, the ultrasound SCP is the first scholarly concentration, track or pathway offered to medical students in the United States. It is the first description of a student designed and student led curriculum focused on providing meaningful ultrasound opportunities to students without necessitating unavailable faculty resources and educational infrastructure. CONCLUSION: A novel ultrasound SCP is described which has clinical aims to expose students to clinical ultrasound as well as scholarly aims to facilitate ultrasound related research and educational innovation. It is designed to enable students to make ultrasound a defining characteristic of their medical school experience. The SCP relies on motivated student involvement and near-peer teaching in a way that is self-sustaining and self-improving.