Use of point-of-care ultrasound is increasing and clinicians and radiologists need to collaborate to take advantage of this new technology, which can help boost patient satisfaction scores, experts said during a session at this week’s RSNA annual meeting.

At the session, “Partnering with Clinical Colleagues on a Point-of-Care Ultrasound Program,” Dr. Nilam Soni, a hospitalist who leads point-of-care ultrasound training and implementation for the South Texas Veterans Health Care System, spoke from a clinician’s perspective. He noted that more clinicians are utilizing point-of-care ultrasound because they don’t want to “miss the obvious.”

“None of wants to get that phone call that says, ‘Why didn’t you call us sooner? How did we miss this?'"Soni said.

The technology also allows clinicians to stay at the bedside, potentially increasing patient satisfaction scores and providing a source of clinical revenue.

Common point-of-care ultrasound applications include diagnosing pericardial effusion and pneumothorax and assessing LV systolic function and bladder volume.

Point-of-care ultrasound has many definitions, and enterprise imaging can help bring them together, said Dr. Summer Kaplan, a pediatric radiologist at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP).

“They all kind of converge around image storage, labeling, and reporting, and as enterprise imaging grows and includes POCUS, that allows more consistent practices across specialties and allows us to define our practices a little more clearly,” Kaplan said.

Kaplan spoke about the importance of including point-of-care ultrasound in enterprise imaging, to create viewable images for medical decision-making, documentation for risk management, quality assurance and patient safety, quality improvement and education, and coding and billing compliance.

While some radiologists see a “threat” from point-of-care ultrasound, of increased orders for imaging exams and shrinking the use of radiology ultrasound, Kaplan said there were more chances for missed opportunities in chest and ocular ultrasound, as well as joint ultrasound.

“Having clinical colleagues who understand the value and the place that ultrasound has in clinical care will allow us to develop advanced applications in a way that’s clinically meaningful,” Kaplan said. “Things like contrast-enhanced ultrasound, high-frequency ultrasound and elastography will develop much quicker with clinical collaboration.”

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