Allied Health Care Providers

This echo training gives professionals from all specialties the skills to broaden and deepen their talents and open doors to lifelong opportunities.  These include Radiography and Respiratory Therapy Technologists, Traditional and Advanced-Practice Nurses, PA’s, and Paramedics.  Foreign Physicians who find it impractical to re-board in the USA or Canada have found this a valuable path to expressing their expertise.
This Course will not confer the requisite 12 months of clinical experience required to apply for credentialing,  but it will give you a particular edge at the start, when your potential Director says, “Now let me see you scan….”
[Echocardiograper Credentialing]

Anesthesiologists & PACU Team: POC Ultrasound

This echo training is far deeper than your Residency ultrasound training.  A targeted pre-op cardiac ultrasound survey by your own hands can powerfully influence your approach to your intra-operative management.  And in the PACU, you and your Nursing Team will take ever-demanding cardiopulmonary care to its highest and most efficient outcome metrics.  POC Ultrasound has come full circle with targeted-exam reimbursement and low-cost, high-performance pocket ultrasound.  Prepare everyone fully for the POC Ultrasound Credentialing Academy’s pathways.

Primary Care and Internal Medicine Providers: POC-Echo Ultrasound

Targeted/Limited Echocardiography training lies in your future and is already a component of the Point of Care Ultrasound Credentialing Academy paths, linked to reimbursement.  High-performance Pocket Imaging/Doppler instruments available now at reasonable cost have opened the door to help you deepen and expedite your patient care decisions in triage and surveillance.

Research & Medical Ultrasound Device Professionals

No one in the field of medicine today has the depth and breadth of experience with ultrasound training for the Medical Device Industry as us.  Over many years we’ve worked closely with nearly all ultrasound device manufacturers to steer and refine their products for clinical focus.  We’ve also consulted with some of the largest Research Center on earth to help structure their work.  As a Research Scientist, you’ll be able to identify and measure virtually any element of cardiovascular function.  If you’re a Medical Device Professional- whether in-house or in the field, you’ll be better able to build, market, and sell your instrument with a unique competitive edge in the Service of many.

ER & Critical Care Providers: POC-Echo Ultrasound

This echo training is far deeper than the training you got in Residency.  You’ll be able to evaluate immediately right and left heart function and make critical decisions long before the echo report arrives.  You’ll command the qualitative and objective measures of critical vs. suppressed LV function, RV enlargement, CVP, tamponade, and pulmonary hypertension quickly and confidently as soon as you return.  You’ll be ready to get credentialed for reimbursement through the Point of Care Ultrasound Credentialing Agency.

Sonography Students & Graduates: Expand & Expound Your Ultrasound Training

Students and Graduates of formal General Ultrasound programs will find far more job opportunities with echocardiography training on your resume.  Many of our colleagues in this Class undertake it to build their foundation and/or expand upon it.  Regardless of prior experience, we’ll be able to take you farther and deeper to prepare you for your future practice and credentialing.  Your investment will pay out substantially when your potential Director says, “Let me see you scan.“

Veterinary Medicine & POC Ultrasound

Veterinary echocardiography training runs on the same rails as humans and the low-cost/high-performance equipment now in the marketplace allows you to leverage both to enhance your Practice.  This Class is the shortest and most effective path to your goal and our post-Class support ensures your future confidence and competence.  Your credentialing by the POC Ultrasound Certification Academy (for humans) will enhance the depth of your care and the value of your Practice.

Our hands-on ultrasound training focus is to take the practicing clinician and escort her or him to vastly greater hands-on ultrasound protocol and analysis skills in record time.
If you’re entering healthcare for the first time, you should consider your long-term goals and opportunities.
In North America, you can apply to any of hundreds of accredited schools (18+ months duration) and upon graduation immediately undertake your formal credentialing exam.
You’ll find the US Government’s most authoritative and current overview of the ultrasound career field here.

The class is strictly small so we can spend time on the topics we need to cover and all the ones you want to discuss:

• Putting together the complete echo protocol: nothing left behind
• The one simple thing that will take three years off your learning curve and add a decade to your career.
• The secret to quickly getting every standard echo view without having to think.
• A simple six-step method to understand spectral and color Doppler completely.
• Wall motion and thickening: what really matters and when it counts most.
• LV function measurements completely explained and clinically connected.
• Everything the physician needs to know about the right ventricle and how to find it.
• Valvular stenosis and regurgitation: uncovering the likely mechanism and determining its significance.
• The most accurate means to evaluate valvular regurgitation that complements the cath lab’s record.
• The earliest clues to subjectively detect and/or measure pulmonary hypertension.
• How the aortic valve can lead to renal failure: the illustrated story behind interactive cardiac dysfunction.
• The four things to assess below the diaphragm in every cardiac patient.
• Techniques to overcome body habitus and air: the secrets you might not have even thought of.
• How to analyze and document every pathologic finding: taking the right steps, using the right words.
• How to think your way through any Registry Exam question you might ever face.
• Next steps: How to reenter your workplace and maximize your next six months in the Field.

Our approach is totally focused on the patient diagnosis.  We are deeply familiar with virtually every ultrasound machine and the manufacturer’s rationale behind its design, features, and functions.  No faculty members have any commercial interests or participation that might influence course content.

There is no formal test in this class: we evaluate you continuously and offer positive feedback and gentle corrections throughout.  Upon completion of this activity, and through continued review, you should be able to:

• Describe the normal structural anatomy of the heart and the electromechanical events that control and determine its function.
• Complete a systematic survey of the heart with 2-D and M-Mode ultrasound imaging; document and measure al structures in all standard views and expand the protocol as required to document ambiguous findings or suspected pathology.
• Relate 2-D image anatomy to its correlate M-mode pattern, compare and contrast each method of display.
• Properly judge the quality of acquired data and communicate any limitations.
• State the normal range measurement values for each principal cardiac structure and physiologic function.
• Identify each anatomic region and segment of the heart from any given echocardiographic view; relate it to its usual coronary distribution.
• Identify abnormalities of resting cardiac wall motion and thickening using standard terminology; classify each according to
 its clinical significance
• Discuss the basis, significance, and pitfalls of the following measures of cardiac function:
  • Ejection fraction & fractional shortening
  • % Wall thickening
  • MAPSE, TAPSE
  • Stroke volume
  • Cardiac output
  • Cardiac index
  • LV mass.
• Identify and differentiate ventricular hypertrophy by the chamber, type, and degree.
• Identify, stratify, and discuss the clinical significance of pericardial effusion in the assessment of suspected tamponade.
• Identify and discuss the image and Doppler parameters associated with subaortic obstruction.
• Demonstrate the technique to image the posteromedial apical fossa and LA appendage to inspect for thrombus.
• Identify and distinguish the characteristics of pedunculated vs. mural thrombus vs. tumor.
• Identify and distinguish the characteristics of valvular vegetative excrescence vs. fibrotic thickening.
• Document and measure the course of blood flow through the entire heart using color and spectral Doppler as appropriate in all views.
• Maximize system sensitivity of color & spectral Doppler to avoid the most common false negative findings.
• Define the following terms and relate them to their clinical impact in Doppler assessment of altered hemodynamic states:
  • Preload
  • Afterload
  • Bernoulli effect
  • Pouiselle’s law
  • Valvular regurgitation/insufficiency
  • Tachycardia
  • Hypo/hyperkinesis and akinesis; differentiate these terms from their equivalent dynamic state
  • Paradoxical motion.
• Based on clinical findings, select, describe the basis for, and execute the appropriate Doppler calculation for a given pathological state, including:
  • Expanded vs. simplified Bernoulli equation for AS
  • Peak/mean pressure gradient
  • Continuity equation
  • Pressure half-time for mitral stenosis or aortic insufficiency
  • Color Doppler of mitral and/or aortic valve orifice area
  • Pulmonary valve acceleration time
  • Subjective and objective methods of grading insufficiency in all four valves
  • E/A ratio, E/E’ TDI ratio, pulmonary vein reversal, tissue Doppler, and MV deceleration time.
  • State a concise summary of all findings using standard terminology.

$3600. Five Days (Monday-Friday), 9 am-4 pm. Scan Lab open 24 hours for independent practice. Formal sessions conclude at 4 pm Friday. Your tuition includes your complete learning experience, printed course materials, and post-conference support in perpetuity. Breakfast and light lunch is provided.

Your class experience is predominantly hands-on and content is tailored to both your specialty and experience, hour-to-hour.  In this live interactive process, nothing is formulaic and fixed, as specified by the many varied CME accreditation bodies.  Thus, we do not award formal Credit Hours, though your individualized experience here will advance your clinical skills dramatically.  Presently, ultrasound credentialing prerequisites require Clinical Experience Hours before application for an exam.  Ongoing CME is now specific to your registry specialty after you’re credentialed.   To this end, we’ll always direct you to the most appropriate free and low-cost traditional CME credit activities available online.