Independent Assessment of Point of Care Ultrasound (POCUS) Training Among Graduating Residents in Two Anesthesiology Residency Programs

Sep 20, 2026

Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) has become integral to anesthesiology resident education, yet residency programs implement POCUS curricula with varying structures. To evaluate training effectiveness, an external examiner assessed graduating residents from two academic anesthesiology programs using unbiased measures. Data covered knowledge, image acquisition and interpretation, and patient management across multiple OSCE-style stations, including MCQs, image interpretation, acquisition tasks, and post-test surveys. No significant between-program differences were found overall, with limited advantages in certain imaging areas for one site.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages19

Reading Time48 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Background

Methods

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Introduction

Review began 08/05/2025 Review ended 11/15/2025 Published 11/20/2025 © Copyright 2025 Subramani et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License CCBY 4.0. , which permits unrestricted use , distribution , and reproduction in any medium , provided the original author and source are credited. DOI: 10.7759/cureus.97339 Open Access Original Article Independent Assessment of Point of Care Ultrasound (POCUS) Training Among Graduating Residents in Two Anesthesiology Residency Programs Sudhakar Subramani 1 , Richard Gardner 2, Alexander Kaizer 3 , Joss J. Thomas 4, Sudarshan Setty 4 1. Anesthesiology, University of California, Irvine, USA 2. Anesthesiology & Perioperative Medicine, University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, Cleveland, USA 3. Biostatistic and Informatics, Colorado School of Public Health, University of Colorado-Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, USA 4. Anesthesiology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA Corresponding author: Sudarshan Setty, [settys@umn.edu](settys@umn.edu) Abstract Background In the recent past, point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) has been an integral part of resident education in anesthesiology. Residency programs have varied levels of POCUS curriculum. To assess the effectiveness of POCUS training, we conducted a study on graduating residents of two academic anesthesiology programs. To avoid bias, we used an external examiner to assess the effectiveness of teaching. Methods Graduating anesthesiology residents from the University of Minnesota (12 residents ) and the University of Iowa (24 residents) from 2022 and 2023 were included. Our study collected data on the different aspects of POCUS training: knowledge, ability to acquire and interpret images, and management of patients based on POCUS imaging in four different stations. The stations included multiple-choice questions (MCQs), image interpretation and patient management, image acquisition, and post-test surveys. Results There was no statistically significant difference in the knowledge, image interpretation, and post-test surveys between the two programs. Residents from the University of Minnesota performed slightly better in some areas than their University of Iowa counterparts in acquiring images in subcostal, parasternal short, parasternal long, and pneumothorax assessments. Conclusions Differences in teaching curriculum and model body habitus may account for the observed differences between the two groups. A structured POCUS curriculum with an unbiased means of assessing the effectiveness of teaching can be valuable in improving teaching methods and providing feedback to the learners. A study with additional cohorts, more sites, or a larger number of participants may have greater statistical power to detect potential differences between sites or cohorts. Categories: Anesthesiology Keywords: external assessment, pocus, pocus curriculum, resident education, unbiased evaluation Introduction Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) represents a significant advancement in medical diagnostics, allowing clinicians to rapidly obtain reliable and accurate bedside assessments of patients. This technology has been widely adopted across numerous specialties, including anesthesia, where its applications have become integral to daily practice [1] . The versatility of POCUS enables anesthesia providers to navigate cardiovascular anatomy safely and efficiently, aiding in the identification of common cardiac conditions that can lead to perioperative hemodynamic instability. Beyond cardiac assessments, POCUS has expanded to include lung, gastric, and Focused Assessment with Sonography for Trauma (FAST) examinations, facilitating the identification of certain intra-abdominal structures in acute care management as well as for determining gastric content prior to anesthetic induction in special circumstances [2] . Recognizing the critical role of POCUS in m

FAQs

How were POCUS training effectiveness and resident competency assessed?

Graduating anesthesiology residents from two accredited programs were evaluated by an external examiner using OSCE-style stations covering knowledge, image acquisition and interpretation, and patient management, plus post-test surveys.

Were there statistically significant differences between the two residency programs?

The study reported no statistically significant differences between the two programs in knowledge, image interpretation, or post-test survey outcomes.

What factors might explain differences observed in some imaging tasks?

The findings suggest that differences in teaching curriculum and model body habitus may account for the observed variations in performance for certain imaging assessments.

Sep 20, 2026

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