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US as diagnostic


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I am trying to show the ortho practice that I work for that investing in a good US machine and training me (and a few other PAs) on how to use it to diagnose would be beneficial.

Does anyone know where I could find statistics on the cost effectiveness, accuracy compared to MRI, % of practices that currently use US... etc.

I've been digging into journals for most of my information but they like to see numbers from reputable sources.

 

Thanks

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What about US guided injections? I'm not sure what area of ortho you work in, but US was used a lot during my sports med rotation. There are plenty of articles on pubmed about the increased accuracy of glenuhumeral joint injections with US. You can bill more for using US too. It also allows you to do things like biceps tendon sheath injections.

Edited by dholmb
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11 minutes ago, dholmb said:

What about US guided injections? I'm not sure what area of ortho you work in, but US was used a lot during my sports med rotation. There are plenty of articles on pubmed about the increased accuracy of glenuhumeral joint injections with US. You can bill more for using US too. It also allows you to do things like biceps tendon sheath injections.

Not ultrasound guided injection. Sorry, I should have been more clear. US specifically for diagnostic purposes, rotator cuff tear, tenosynovitis, other ligament disruptions, or even cubital or carpal tunnel. US in place of MRI for those that may not be able to afford or are unable to have an MRI. 

I know of one instance where one of our patient two days after a foot surgery (plate placed) was startled and while in her splint, ruptured her tibialis anterior. She was not able to have an MRI due to the plate not having had time to heal. My SP tried to use our US that we use to do injections, but since he doesn't ever use it for that purpose wasn't very convinced, ended up opening up and found it was ruptured... That kind of spurred the idea of looking into training some of us to use the US diagnostically.

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On 9/8/2019 at 4:22 PM, AbeTheBabe said:

I don't know that I'd be comfortable diagnosing with US and writing a full report unless I had EXTENSIVE training. Couldn't you have referred the patient to a radiologist who does MSK US?

It really isn’t that difficult. It takes about 10-25 scans to become proficient enough per ACEP guidelines for credentialing, who also does sports med. why refer to an outside radiologist when you can capture that charge? Besides, we all know the rads guy will say better characterize with MRI 😉

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