FiNorman

My comment wasn't made to insult you or sonographers. I have a great deal of admiration of their skills and abilities, and I certainly have learned a great deal from them over the years. I also support ARDMS and SDMS regulating sonographers in any way they see fit, as this is their profession. With that being said, PAs have the ability to work with our collaborating physician organizations to create the standards which we see fit, and having a profession outside of our profession dictate how we should train our own profession, educate our selves and attain competency is not how we determine the future of our profession. ARDMS is well aware of how ACEP and other organizations view their attempt at professional misappropriation, and it is an official policy. In fact ACEP has called this policy "ludicrous." APCA/RDMS policy ACEP policy on Merit badge certification The ARDMS position is as inappropriate as nursing stating that PAs can't decide what standards are needed to place an IV in a patient, and if they would like to do so they should take a course created by nurses, so they can get a certificate created by nurses, and in the future nurses will decide what education requirements are needed to attain this certification.... and all the proceeds from this endeavor will go to a nursing association. If nurses want to decide how nurses put in IVs, then I support their societal aspirations, as long as it doesn't harm my patients or interfere our ability to care for patients. My position isn't intended to offend you or sonographers, so I do apologize if that was the case.

"Is there any device analogous to the Butterfly system for Android phones?" Yes, The Philips Lumify Series runs from certain (not all android devices). The Lumify has the best image quality of all the hand held devices, and approximates the images produced by quality cart system. The Lumify system is inside each of the probes, and since the probes derive their power from the android device they will not work with the iPhone systems (iPhone only has the lightning and speaker ports which do not have enough electricity to power the Lumify probe. The advantage is you only have to charge one device (the tablet/phone). The disadvantage is you will need a different probe for different applications (high frequency probe for superficial scanning, low frequency for deeper structures). Each probe costs about $8k, or your could lease each for about $200/month. My understanding is Butterfly will eventually have an android version, but I don't have a time line or verification.

In reference to RDMS and other certifications..... I support what every journey a clinical takes to attaining their goal. However I would remind clinicians that certification is not needed for the performance or billing of bedside ultrasound studies, nor is it needed for the credentialing, or privileging. In fact, ACEP, SEMPA, SPOCUS, and many other provider centric societies oppose "merit badge testing by external entities". This policy specifically refers to ultrasound, but also includes opposition to courses like ACLS and PALS. The reasoning is that requesting permission from outside entities to treat our patients surrenders our profession's right to self determination. ARDMS and Intelios run a business. We learn, master and perform many tests which have higher stakes than ultrasound, without taking a certification exam... EKG comes to mind. SPOCUS has published ultrasound competency guidelines, which mirror the ACEP competency based guidelines. The guidelines suggest a short CME ultrasound course, 25 scans in each application, and a total of a minimum of 150 ultrasounds to apply for credentialing.

Hello colleagues, I would like to start by stating I have no financial relationships with any of the parties involved. The only income I receive is from my hourly wage I earn. My name is Frank Norman and I am the Co-Founder of The Society of Point of Care Ultrasound. SPOCUS is a non profit, multidisciplinary medical society which is focused on integrating bedside ultrasound into practice and education. To my knowledge it is the first and only PA led society which is creating national standards of care, training and education for all of medicine. SPOCUS has recently partnered with ultrasound manufacturer Butterfly Network. The Butterfly Network has created a hand held, single probe ultrasound which plugs into an iPhone. However, instead of costing $20k for an ultrasound machine, The Butterfly is priced at $2k, unfortunately there is a waiting list to purchase the device. SPOCUS and Butterly are collaborating on a very unique opportunity. SPOCUS will offer very affordable ultrasound training workshops for PAs (flipping the classroom with pre-course video lectures and e-books, as well as live ultrasound training) , and Butterfly will offer the opportunity purchase one of their machines, skipping the wait list, to be delivered before the live conference, so the attendees can practice what they have learned through the videos. In addition, the attendees will also be able to save their practice images to the Butterfly Cloud, and used as a learning opportunity during the live workshop. The first of these opportunities will be at the AAPA 2019 in Denver, Co, on May 20th. SPOCUS will also mentor attendees on credentialing, billing, and medical-legal issues and PA Program curriculum integration, regardless the medical specialty (PA students, IM, FP, Peds, ortho, surgery and the subspecialties) I hope to see you all there, Thanks, Frank

There are many PAs which are performing clinical sonography, or POCUS. US will soon be incorporated into the curriculum of PAs schools to augment anatomy, physiology, physical exam, and the practicum. In the ER, clinical sonography is a skill which has been declared integral to the practice of emergency medicine, and therefore a skill to be learned by every provider, as it is taught in residency. http://spacus.org